The Heavenly Blue of Gothic. Martinikerk I, Groningen, The Netherlands
Around 800 CE there was a wooden church in Groningen where now stands magnificent Gothic St Martin's the tower of which is known affectionately in the local dialect as "d'Olle Grieze" (= Old Gray). The first wooden church was soon replaced by a second one, reputedly burned down with the rest of the town around 1000 by marauding Norsemen. Then there was a succession of stone and brick buildings.
Quick growth of Groningen's population in the late fourteenth and fifteenth century made a larger church necessary, and the romanesque choir made place for the present Gothic one. This was renovation at its best, and it became an example to emulate for many towns in the northern Netherlands and northern Germany (e.g. Appingedam and Norden).
The high costs for this rebuilding were in part defrayed by the permission granted by Pope Boniface IX (1389-1404) to sell indulgences for honoring the relic of the purported arm of John the Baptist preserved here. It had been bought in the East by a merchant and came into the possession of St. Martin's in the early thirteenth century through the efforts of a female hermit who lived opposite the church (a story told by Caesarius of Heisterbach (c.1180-c.1140), a medieval chronicler and popular teller of fabulous tales).
This view to the East of the azure blue ceiling of the choir, studded with stars, is from the altar. Through the interior window, you can just see an indication of the fourteen enormous secco paintings of scenes from the life of Jesus. They were made in the sixteenth century, but whited out by the Protestants who took over the city in 1594 (the 'reduction' of Groningen). Rediscovered in 1923, they have since been restored beautifully.
Today the church is used for ecumenical services, for concerts, and often for lectures (especially of the Faculty of Law). The main organ on the west wall is a wonder to behold (see the next photo) and to hear!
Curiously: I left the flash on automatic and it fired but I didn't notice till I got home that the blue was far more cerulean than I remembered. I went back but couldn't get it to what I see as closer to azure. There's more yellow, too, in the arches. Anyway... you can't win them all.
The Heavenly Blue of Gothic. Martinikerk I, Groningen, The Netherlands
Around 800 CE there was a wooden church in Groningen where now stands magnificent Gothic St Martin's the tower of which is known affectionately in the local dialect as "d'Olle Grieze" (= Old Gray). The first wooden church was soon replaced by a second one, reputedly burned down with the rest of the town around 1000 by marauding Norsemen. Then there was a succession of stone and brick buildings.
Quick growth of Groningen's population in the late fourteenth and fifteenth century made a larger church necessary, and the romanesque choir made place for the present Gothic one. This was renovation at its best, and it became an example to emulate for many towns in the northern Netherlands and northern Germany (e.g. Appingedam and Norden).
The high costs for this rebuilding were in part defrayed by the permission granted by Pope Boniface IX (1389-1404) to sell indulgences for honoring the relic of the purported arm of John the Baptist preserved here. It had been bought in the East by a merchant and came into the possession of St. Martin's in the early thirteenth century through the efforts of a female hermit who lived opposite the church (a story told by Caesarius of Heisterbach (c.1180-c.1140), a medieval chronicler and popular teller of fabulous tales).
This view to the East of the azure blue ceiling of the choir, studded with stars, is from the altar. Through the interior window, you can just see an indication of the fourteen enormous secco paintings of scenes from the life of Jesus. They were made in the sixteenth century, but whited out by the Protestants who took over the city in 1594 (the 'reduction' of Groningen). Rediscovered in 1923, they have since been restored beautifully.
Today the church is used for ecumenical services, for concerts, and often for lectures (especially of the Faculty of Law). The main organ on the west wall is a wonder to behold (see the next photo) and to hear!
Curiously: I left the flash on automatic and it fired but I didn't notice till I got home that the blue was far more cerulean than I remembered. I went back but couldn't get it to what I see as closer to azure. There's more yellow, too, in the arches. Anyway... you can't win them all.