Following our Museum visit we sat under the shade of a tree at the edge of the square we'd entered this morning because it was quite warm by this stage and we ate our sandwich lunch, all the while talking about our visit to the museum which was such a blessing.
We next retraced some of our steps and went to visit the St Bravo's Church which we had seen earlier in the day when it was closed. We'd also seen its steeple resplendent in the midday sun, from various points around our town walk and we walked past it too. It is an important landmark for the city and have dominated the city skyline for centuries.
It is a reformed Protestant church and a former Catholic Church located near the Central market Square. It's been the main Church of Haarlem after renovations in 15th century in the middle of the Protestant Reformation. Most people refer to this cathedral as the Big Church since Protestant churches in Haarlem are not named after saints.
The church has gone through many renovations and extensions do restorations over the years. Some of these renovations were due to a fire started by a lightning strike, other fires and the stain glass windows suffered through neglect over the years. There are only a few original stain glass windows that have survived and the original stain glass window that stood in a window behind where the pipe organ is housed has been lost (though there is a painting of it) because the window was bricked up when the pipe organ was installed in 1663.
The church is huge: 108 metres long, 47 metres wide and the height of the nave is 29 metres. The tower is 76 metres high and up until 1919 the tower was used as a sentry box for fire-watchers of the city. Red flags were waved if a fire was spotted and the guards in the main guardhouse of the city would react. In 1930 an automatic sprinkler system was installed in the church tower and it can extinguish a fire 70 metres high in the tower.
The interior of the church has changed little over the years except that it has been re-painted many times by local painters.
The floor of the bravo church consists entirely of gravestones.there are 1500 gravestones all together and the oldest gravestone dates back to the 15th century.
The massive Christian Muller organ was constructive in 1735 to 1738. It have 5068 pipes and is almost 30 metres high. The longest pipe is 10 m long and it has an impressive sound. In 1756 Mozart, who is 10 years old, played this organ and G.F. Handel also played this organ. The organ went through a long restoration between 1959 and 1963 and the cost was very high. The cost of many places of worship throughout Europe and even in Sydney is what we pay to retain history so churches. Need to raise funds by changing entrance fees from tourists and other visitors. Along both the length of the cathedral's outside walls a series of small cafes and shops have been built. This is one way of meeting the expensive upkeep costs of this very old building which has a wonderful history to tell.
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