Nederland - Nijmegen, Stevenskerk

Nijmegen received city rights in 1230 and was expanding rapidly. The buildings 'crept' slowly up the hilla from the quay along the river Waal. The construction of the Stevenskerk (officially the Great Church or St. Stephen's Church) on top of the Hundisburg - one of the seven hills on which the city was built - was a kind of capstone. Construction of the church began around 1254 and it was consecrated in 1272. What remains of the originally Romanesque-Gothic church are the understructure of the tower and a few bays of the nave. In the following centuries, the church was rebuilt and enlarged again and again.

After the Iconoclastic Fury in 1591, the church came into the hands of the Protestants. In the process, statues of saints and other objects were destroyed. With one exception, all the heads of the statues in the church were chopped off. The interior was also whitewashed. The interior offers elegant domes, the monumental Köniorgan, splendid stained glass windows, age old graves and a spectacular row of chandeliers.

The 71 metre high tower of the Stevenskerk was damaged several times by fire or acts of war. The church and the tower were severely damaged after a bombing raid in February 1944 during World War II. After the war the church was thoroughly renovated; the tower was the first to be rebuilt in 1953, and the church was officially reopened in 1969.

Stevenskerk nowadays is still the 750-year icon of Nijmegen and used for for weekly ecumenical church services, exhibitions, activities of student associations and orations. The church is open for visitors.