Outtakes

March 7, 2004

All the ancient churches of the Groningen area online

On the website www.historischekerken.nl Stichting Vom Himmel hoch creates an archive of all ancient churches (build before 1800 AD) in the Netherlands. The first area that is put online is Groningen, a province in the north-east of the country. Together with Friesland, the neighbour province, the region has been the most important centre of religious and monastic culture in the Dutch middle ages.

After the reformation monastic life has quickly disapeared in this part of the country, but, because of decline in the population together with long periods of relative poverty in the area, many devote buildings of the so called dark ages have remained unmodified.