The misericords and history of Haarlem Grote Kerk,
Sint-Bavokerk.
St Bavokerk, Haarlem has forty four, early 16th century misericords.
Click to launch a description of the misericords at the Bavokerk, Haarlem
History of Haarlem Grote Kerk, Sint-Bavokerk.
There has been a church on the site of the present St Bavokerk since at least the 9th century, however, as St Bavo is the patron saint of Haarlem it may have been felt to be redundant to dedicate the church to him . Additionally, St Bavo is an Eastern Orthodox saint, rather than a Roman Catholic one, there is, therefore, some confusion as to what the first church’s dedication was. As will become apparent, confusion about dedications in not unusual with the Bavokerk. In 1328 a great fire destroyed much of the city including the Bavokerk, reconstruction of the church took nearly 150 years, although like many churches, constant change is here to stay.
The misericords date from 1512, so well after the reconstruction had officially finished, however, by this time, Haarlem was a thriving city with the right to collect tolls from shipping, a weaving trade, several shipyards and breweries, so it is likely that the merchant class, who were still fully Roman Catholic would have paid for extra priests to perform masses for the dead. Even so, 44 misericords is quite a high number for a city of this size. It is also worth noting that the Green Man is usually thought of as a British tradition, but it is nice to see that misericords N14 and S03 are fine examples of a Dutch Green men. As these misericords are stylistically typical of the low countries, we can be fairly confident that these misericords were not produced by an English carver, but where the influence comes from remains a mystery.
By this time the Grote Kerk was already, popularly, known as the Bavokerk or St Bavokerk, however the church was not dedicated to any particular saint, and was officially known as the Grote Kerk.
In 1559 the Bavokerk was elevated to cathedral status with the installation of the first bishop of Haarlem. This would have been a logical time for the Grote Kerk to gain the official dedication to St Bavo, but this seems to have slipped their minds, or maybe the redundancy argument swung the day. 19 years later, the Dutch won their independence from Spain and rapidly became a Protestant nation, which resulted in the seizure of the Bavokerk from the Catholic church, and a return to its prior status as parish church - yet again with no change of dedication.
During the late 16th and subsequent centruies Haarlem seems to have welcomed people of all faiths, as long as they could make a profit for the city, so Catholics and Hugenots would often work side by side, however, the Catholics were still deprived of the Bavokerk, so over the centuries found other places to worship. Now the name confusion deepens. In the late 19th century, the Catholic population of Haarlem built their own cathedral, this one very prominently dedicated to St Bavo - this can be really confusing for the tourist!
The Official Bavokerk, Haarlem website - Currently this is in Dutch with English summary.
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