Oostkerk (Arent van 's Gravezande, 1647-1667)
1644 the first plans for this
church were made. Although there were several formerly catholic
churches and chapels the protestants of Middelburg could use, the new
the eastern part of the town were at too big a distance from them. The
Oostkerk ('east church') would become the first church in Middelburg
that was specially built for protestant services.
Several architects were involved. The first was Bartholomeus Drijfhout,
who had studied several other new protestant churches first. Pieter
Post was asked for advice. It was decided to build a centralizing
church. In September 1648 work started. After Drijfhout died in June
1649 Arent van 's Gravezande, the town architect of Leiden, made a new
design as of the first design only the foundations were finished. Like
the Marekerk in Leiden, which he had also designed and which had just
been completed, it became a monumental building with little or none of
the modesty the Calvinists preached but not always practiced. After
all, Middelburg was a wealthy city, thanks to the trade in spices and
slaves. It's a building in Classical style with an octagonal
ground-plan, like many early protestant churches, and is covered by a
big dome, on top of which is a lantern-tower. This dome differs from
the design by Van 's Gravezande which was probably altered by one of
the town architects that were involved.
The whole population of Middelburg was forced to pay for the church, as
everybody was supposed to be protestant anyway. In 1651 the people
rebelled against the taxes on wine and beer, and the governors decided
for voluntary contributions instead, which however didn't help much.
From 1652 until 1655 work had to be stopped. Soon the taxes returned
and construction continued. When Van 's Gravezande died in 1662 work
again stopped for several years. In 1666-1667 the church was finally
completed. Today it is considered one of the most important examples of
early protestant church architecture in the Netherlands.