Nederland - Gouda, Sint-Janskerk

The Sint-Janskerk (St. John's Church) is a large Gothic church. The church was first mentiones in documents fromn the year 1280. The current church however was built after the gfreat fire of 1552. It was named after John the Baptist, the patron saint of Gouda. In 1485 the foundation was built for the present-day choir. This expansion made the church the longest in the Netherlands, with a length of 123 meters.

Nowadays the Sint-Janskerk is known especially for its stained glass windows, for which it has been placed on the list of the top 100 Dutch monuments. It displays almost half of all 16th century satined-glass windows that survived in the Netherlands. The Sint-Janskerk contains a total of 72 windows of various sizes; the total area of the windows is 1755 m².

The stained glass windows were made and installed primarily by the brothers Dirk and Wouter Crabeth I, in the years 1555-1571, and after a short stop for the Protestant Reformation, until 1603. These Goudse Glazen (Gouda Windows) depict scenes from the life of St John the Baptist, other biblical scenes, as well as important events in Dutch history.