A kerkenkruis (Dutch: literally "church-cross") is a formation of churches that form a cross on a map. The primary example is in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where five churches form a cross: the Utrecht Cathedral (known as the Dom) in the center, with St. John's Church, St. Peter's Church, St. Paul's Abbey, and St. Mary's Church as the north, east, south, and west extremities respectively.
All of the churches date from the Middle Ages, but the term kerkenkruis is younger. It is uncertain whether forming a cross was accidental or intentional.
The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches, or Old Catholic movement, designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivided church but who separated from the see of Rome after the First Vatican council of 1869–70". The expression Old Catholic has been used from the 1850s by communions separated from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, primarily concerned with papal authority and infallibility. Some of these groups, especially in the Netherlands, had already existed long before the term. The Old Catholic Church is separate and distinct from Traditionalist Catholicism.
Utrecht is the fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Utrecht is located in the eastern part of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Netherlands, and includes Haarzuilens, Vleuten en De Meern. It has a population of 361,699 as of December 2021.
The Dom Tower of Utrecht is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, at 112.32 metres (368,5 feet) in height. It is considered the symbol of Utrecht. The tower was part of St. Martin's Cathedral, also known as the Dom Church, and was built between 1321 and 1382, to a design by John of Hainaut. The cathedral was never fully completed due to lack of money. Since the unfinished nave collapsed in 1674, the Dom tower has been a freestanding tower. The tower stands at the spot where the city of Utrecht originated almost 2,000 years ago.
Bodegraven is a town and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The former municipality covers an area of 38.50 km2 (14.86 sq mi) of which 1.02 km2 (0.39 sq mi) is water.
St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht, or Dom Church, is a Gothic church dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, which was the cathedral of the Diocese of Utrecht during the Middle Ages. It is the country's only pre-Reformation cathedral, but has been a Protestant church since 1580.
The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, sometimes Jansenist Church of Holland, is an Old Catholic jurisdiction originating from the Archdiocese of Utrecht (695–1580). The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands is the mother church of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht.
The Holland Mission or Dutch Mission was the common name of a Catholic Church missionary district in the Low Countries from 1592 to 1853, during and after the Protestant Reformation in the Netherlands.
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although in a broader sense the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque art, with Mosan Romanesque architecture, stone carving, metalwork, enamelling and manuscript illumination reaching a high level of development during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
The Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches, most commonly referred to by the short form Union of Utrecht, is a federation of Old Catholic Churches, nationally organized from schisms which rejected Roman Catholic doctrines of the First Vatican Council in 1870; its member churches are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
St. Catherine's Cathedral, Utrecht, is a Catholic church dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria situated in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Saint Bernulf or Bernold of Utrecht was Bishop of Utrecht (1026/27–1054).
The term Brick Expressionism describes a specific variant of Expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material. Buildings in the style were erected mostly in the 1920s, primarily in Germany and the Netherlands, where the style was created.
The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John by Hendrick ter Brugghen is an oil painting, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was probably painted c. 1625 as an altarpiece for a Catholic schuilkerk, a "hidden church" or "church in the attic", in the Calvinist Dutch United Provinces, probably Utrecht. When discovered in a bombed out church in South Hackney, London in 1956, it was unknown, but by the time it appeared in Sotheby's salesroom in November of that year it was recognized as an important example of Utrecht Caravaggism. It was acquired by the museum in the sale.
St. Peter's Church is a Reformed and former Roman Catholic church in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands, dedicated to Peter the Apostle. It is one of the city's oldest churches. Its construction began in 1039 and it was inaugurated on 1 May 1048 by Bernold, Bishop of Utrecht. The church was the eastern end of Utrecht's "Kerkenkruis", of which the Domkerk the centre is. Characteristic of the Romanesque style in which it is built are the church's large nave pillars, each hewn from one piece of red sandstone, and the crypt under the choir. The building is now used by the Walloon Church.
Balderic of Cleves was a long-reigning and influential Bishop of Utrecht from 918 to 975.
The Sint-Salvator church was one of five Catholic Church collegiate churches in Utrecht, Netherlands, before the Protestant Reformation. The others were St. Martin's Cathedral, St. Peter's Church, St. John's church and St. Mary's church. The church building was situated on the present-day Domplein and was demolished during the Protestant Reformation, after the 1587 outlawing of Catholicism in the Dutch Republic.
Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg (1837–1919) was a German-Dutch sculptor, architect of church interiors, and art collector. His work promoted the Gothic Revival architectural-style in churches throughout Germany and the Netherlands. The Mengelberg family has a long history of various artists and professionals.
Geert van Wou was a well-known Dutch bellfounder. He is best known today for the Maria Gloriosa (1497) of Erfurt Cathedral. The son of a bellfounder, he is considered one of the most important bellfounders of the Middle Ages, though records suggest he participated in other casting.
The historic Diocese of Utrecht was a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church from 695 to 1580, and from 1559 archdiocese in the Low Countries before and during the Protestant Reformation.
St. Mary's Church, also called Mariakerk or Maria Maior, was one of five collegiate churches in the Dutch city of Utrecht, the others being St. Martin's Cathedral, St. Salvator's Church, the Pieterskerk, and the Janskerk. It dated from the eleventh century and was considered one of the finest buildings in Romanesque style in the Netherlands.