Schalkwijk (U): St. Michaël
(A. Tepe, 1878-1879)
The St. Michaël in
Schalkwijk is the Roman Catholic successor of the medieval church
elsewhere in the village, which remained protestant possession after
freedom of
religion was declared. The new church was built at some distance from
the old one and around it a new village centre grew.
The St. Michaël is one of the highlights in the
career of architect Alfred Tepe. It's a big three-aisled cruciform
basilican church, in a neo-Gothic style that owes much to Lower Rhine Gothicism,
like most of Tepes churches. Few of Tepes churches are so richly
decorated
with ornaments as this one, with niches, balustrades and pinacles. The
transept is much richer in detail than usual for Tepe, and shows influences of Northern German
Gothicism. The tower is decorated with blind niches; the
tribune-like niches in the third
segment of the tower were inspired by those of the
reformed church in Houten. On the
south side of the choir is an octagonal sacristy with a wooden turret
on the roof. On the north side the side-aisle has a polygonal closure,
on the south side there's a polygonal chapel in front of it. On both
sides of the nave small spaces stand next to the side-aisles. The one
on the south side has an octagonal stair-turret.
|