Monuments in Noord-Holland

R. Stenvert en C. Kolman (2006)

Gepubliceerd op 26-03-2018

The (Herv.) Willibrordus Church in Nederhorst den Berg

betekenis & definitie

(Kerkstraat 32) is a tufa-clad two-aisled church with five-sided closed choir and a tower of two sections with constricted needle spire. The tower (with later west entrance) and the nave, both executed in Romanesque style with lisenen and round arches, rose on the 'Berg' in the 12th century.

The early Gothic choir is probably 14th-century, as is the southern portal and the sacristy. Shortly after 1550, the flat-covered north side aisle arose, which, in view of the overhanging support, was possibly a westward extension of an already existing northern transept and consisted of side chapels with transverse hoods. From an earlier date, the rectangular sandstone present there is north entrance, decorated with a rope ornament and a hard to read edge lettering (15th century). Under the direction of C.B. Posthumus Meyjes, the church was radically restored in 1892. In 1939 an internal restoration followed.

The interior is covered by a wooden barrel vault with draw beams. The tower and the sacristy have stone vaults. Sculpted animal and angel heads adorn the capitals of the pillars in the ship. The inventory includes a pulpit and a choir fence with a triumphal arch (both in the early 17th century), a doophek and banks (all 17th century), mourning boards for Gerard van Reede († 1670) and his wife Agnes († 1692), and one by CGF White built organ (1872). The graveyard dating from around 1880 is surrounded by high cemeteries surrounded by buttresses and dates back to about 1880. The presbytery (Voorstraat 1) is a two-tiered building from around 1860.