Lebuinuskerk: Deventer’s Gothic Hall Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Netherlands
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page18 sections
History
Lebuinuskerk is a Gothic hall church in Deventer, Netherlands, built between 1450 and 1525 on the site of earlier churches. Its origins reach back to the English missionary Lebuinus, who crossed the IJssel in 768 to convert the Saxons and established a wooden church on a river dune beside a settlement and natural harbor.
The early churches and the bishops of Utrecht
The first church was destroyed by pagans and later rebuilt, traditionally by Ludger, a missionary who became the first bishop of Münster. Three early churches are dated to about 770, shortly after 775, and 881, although no archaeological traces of them have been found. During long periods in the ninth and tenth centuries, Deventer served as a residence of the bishop of Utrecht because Viking incursions threatened the major rivers. The church remained an important institution within the diocese, and the bishop maintained a residence immediately north of it.
A stone predecessor was built in the tenth century by Bishop Balderic. Around the middle of the eleventh century, Bishop Bernold commissioned a large early Romanesque basilica. Bernold was a bishop of Utrecht associated with major Romanesque church building. The basilica had an independent collegiate chapter, a community of clerics organized for worship and administration, its own provostship, and twenty canons.
Medieval rebuilding
A fire around 1234 or 1235 affected the Romanesque basilica, although the extent of the damage is uncertain. Major alterations were made in the early thirteenth century. The choir was enlarged, and six-part rib vaults were installed throughout the church except in the central section of the nave. Another fire destroyed the basilica in 1334.
The present Gothic hall church was constructed in stages between 1450 and 1525, beginning with the southern aisle. A hall church has a nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, forming a unified interior space rather than a tall central nave above lower aisles. The rebuilding made Lebuinuskerk one of the principal churches of the medieval Diocese of Utrecht and the principal church of Deventer.
Cathedral and Protestant church
When the Catholic Diocese of Deventer was established in 1559, the church became its cathedral. It lost that status during the Reformation, a movement that divided Western Christianity and transferred many churches to Protestant control. Calvinists took possession in 1580, renamed the building the Great Church, and substantially altered its interior. Catholic decoration was severely damaged or removed, and the interior was eventually covered with white plaster. Traces of this destruction remain.
The Protestant Lebuinuskerk should be distinguished from Deventer’s Broederenkerk, the former Franciscan monastery church now officially called the Roman Catholic St. Lebuinus Church. That church preserves and venerates the relics of Lebuinus.
Restoration and protection
During a major restoration in the early twentieth century, led by Wolter te Riele and P.J.H. Cuypers, the medieval roof structure was replaced and extensions along the Grote Kerkhof side, including dwellings, were removed. In 1927, restoration work revealed pre-Reformation wall paintings. From that time, most remaining interior plaster was removed except where it covered paintings. Further important restorations of the church and tower took place in the early twenty-first century.
The church belongs to the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, while the tower is owned by the Municipality of Deventer. Lebuinuskerk has been a national monument since 2 July 1968 under monument number 12572, and it was included in the 1990 Top 100 of Dutch national monuments.
Remains
Building and Romanesque remains
Lebuinuskerk is 99.10 metres long internally and reaches a maximum width of 38.65 metres. The nave is approximately 18 metres high. Its load-bearing structure is built of brick, while the exterior is faced with tuff from the Eifel volcanic region. Much of that tuff was reused from basilica components removed during the Gothic rebuilding. Sandstone forms the portals, window surrounds, pinnacles, tracery, and other ornamental elements.
Significant portions of the Romanesque predecessor survive in the rising structure. Its Romanesque crypt also remains. The crypt strongly resembles the crypt of St Peter’s Church in Utrecht, another church commissioned by Bernold. A hole in the crypt connects with the IJssel, and fifteenth-century wall paintings survive on its walls.
West end and tower
Former tower group
The western end originally had a complex group of towers consisting of a central tower and four smaller towers. Most of this arrangement was demolished in 1454. Foundations for a second tower north of the present one survive, although that tower was never completed.
Present tower
The foundation stone of the present tower was laid in the summer of 1459. The tower rises 62.50 metres and is crowned by a domed upper structure, or lantern, designed in 1613 by Hendrick de Keyser in collaboration with Pieter Adriaensz van Delft. A walkable deck surrounds the base of the lantern. Its four-part inscription reads “Fide Deo, Vigila, Consule, Fortis Age,” meaning “Trust in God, be watchful, act with deliberation, be strong.” The lantern openings also contain the smaller bells of the carillon.
A narrow spiral staircase leads to the second gallery, 46 metres above ground level, with 220 steps. The tower clock was made in 1862 by the Parisian clockmaker Amédée-Philippe Borrel. The playing drum and related equipment were supplied in 1866 by the Deventer firm Nering Bögel.
Paintings, chapels, and windows
Medieval decoration
Before the Reformation, the church was richly furnished with wall paintings, images of saints, and altars. Pre-Reformation paintings were found in the crypt and in the Magistrates’ Chapel during the 1927 restoration. The chapel was built specifically for the city magistrates. Plastered cross, star, and net vaults carry religious and secular images, with some decoration dating from the first half of the fourteenth century.
Magistrates’ Chapel
The Magistrates’ Chapel was adapted for small gatherings in 2012 and enclosed with a glass wall during the early twenty-first-century restoration. Its partition contains twelve stained-glass windows with Expressionist depictions of prophets and evangelists. The windows were made by the Haarlem glaziers Nico Schrier and Huib de Ru for the Reformed church on Smedenstraat in Deventer, built in 1935.
Returned stained glass
Four Neo-Gothic stained-glass windows made in 1915 were returned to the church in 2014 by J. H. Boerboom, who had kept them after their disposal in the 1950s. Following restoration, they were reinstalled in 2015.
Organs and bells
Main organ
The main organ was built in Deventer by Johann Heinrich Holtgräve between 1836 and 1839, incorporating much of the pipework from a sixteenth-century predecessor. That earlier instrument included an organ made by Franz Caspar Schnitger in 1722, and seventeen registers in the present organ date from that year. The wind system and wind chests were renewed in 1890 to 1892, and the instrument underwent a fundamental restoration in 1972 to 1975. It has 45 stops on three manuals and pedal. The church also contains a choir organ by Pels & van Leeuwen and a chest organ by Klop.
Hemony carillon
The tower contains the oldest surviving carillon made by Pieter and François Hemony. Thirty-one of its original 33 Hemony bells remain, supplemented by 22 newer bells. During the 2009 restoration, six bells were added to restore the historical basis of the meantone tuning, including a 1,800-kilogram bourdon bell and five smaller bells. The large bells hang in a new three-part steel frame, while the smaller bells were returned to the lantern windows. The carillon now has 53 bells.
Surrounding remains
A remnant of the former Mary Church remains visible beside Lebuinuskerk on the Grote Kerkhof side.
