page_title: Cathedral of St Bavo, Haarlem
section_title: History of the collection
hierarchical_section_title: Cathedral of St Bavo, Haarlem / History of the collection
caption_attribution_description: English: Women's tower of the St. Bavo Basilica in HaarlemNederlands: Vrouwentoren in de St Bavo Basiliek in Haarlem This is an image of rijksmonument number 19555
context_page_description: The Cathedral of Saint Bavo is a cathedral in Haarlem, the Netherlands, built by Joseph Cuypers from 1895 to 1930 to replace the former waterstaatskerk in the Jansstraat called the St. Joseph. That church was itself a replacement for the Sint-Bavokerk, that had been converted to Protestantism from Catholicism in 1578. The Cathedral of Saint Bavo now serves as the main cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. Within the Cathedral, the former sacristy has been converted into a small museum containing historical artefacts from Haarlem's Catholic past.
context_section_description: Haarlem has had a Christian parish church since the 9th century. This first church was a filial church of Velsen, which itself was founded in 695 by Willibrord. It was a wooden church at the site of the current Grote Kerk on the Grote Markt. That church became formally a cathedral in 1559 when the first bishop Nicolaas van Nieuwland was appointed. Only 19 years later, after the Siege of Haarlem, the church was confiscated and converted to Protestantism as part of the Protestant Reformation. At this time most of the art and silver artefacts were also seized and what has survived is now in the collection of the Frans Hals Museum. The Haarlem Catholics took what they could carry with them and went underground. Since the Netherlands was officially no longer a Catholic nation, the underground Catholic places of worship were no longer called churches or kerken, but mission stations or staties. It is unknown how many staties existed in Haarlem at the end of the seventeenth century, but since town records show that these underground churches were tolerated and taxed by the Haarlem council in the eighteenth century, we can be certain that at least seven had more than 300 attendees for mass.
  The station known as the St. Josephs statie met in a converted private home on the Goudsmitsplein until a Waterstaatskerk was built in 1853 in the Jansstraat behind the Grote Kerk, called the St. Joseph kerk. This church, with its formal exterior on the street, became the most popular Haarlem Catholic church. Slowly the other staties were closed in favor of this one Catholic church.
  The various artefacts that survived from the Reformation, as well as from other defunct Haarlem catholic collections, have thus found their way into the collection and are now in the schatkamer, such as a 17th-century painting of the patron saint Bavo and silver from the chapel of Louis Napoleon, who resided for more than a decade at Villa Welgelegen. There are old chasubles, dalmatics, and surplices of the Haarlem clergy, richly embroidered, and showing popular Catholic themes. The French ones are probably also from the Louis Napoleon period, but the earliest are Flemish in origin and date back to the early 16th century.
caption: Women's tower of Saint Bavo Basilica.
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