When an entire country evicts God, what do they do with his houses? What else, the new gods move in:
Making your home a temple is gaining new meaning in the Netherlands, where churches are being repurposed as living spaces. Since 1970 more than a thousand churches have been closed in the country, as the largely atheist population has little use for them. More than a third was demolished. The rest are simply in need of a clever architect.
[. . .]
“Re-usage is the only way to prevent long-lasting vacancy or demolition of churches,” says Sien Wittevrongel of Zecc. “With St-Jakobuskerk, we tried to reinstate a dignified monument with as little intervention as possible.”
The result is a state-of-the-art model of recycling. The sleek interior gives a modern feel to vaulted ceilings, stained-glass windows and a complete Jesus fresco (along with a mezzanine designed for rock concerts in the 1990s). We particularly like the chandelier in the loo.
January 12th, 2011 | 1:34 pm
This is no big deal, as any archaeologist can tell you. Disused churches have been converted to secular use for ages, and nobody ever gave it a second thought. Populations shift, cities shrink, countryside becomes deserted, and there’s this nice, big, stone building nobody is using. I find it hard to be shocked about this.
January 12th, 2011 | 2:29 pm
The Pantheon was taken over and used as a church, so it goes both ways. I was on New Jersey Transit last week, and somewhere near the Oranges (I think) I saw a very old factory which I think was turned into a church.
If our bodies are temples, why not our homes? And why not create new churches out of structures no longer in use?
If the building is a nice building, I’d rather see it retain some use instead of being abandoned.
January 12th, 2011 | 2:42 pm
“The Pantheon was taken over and used as a church, so it goes both ways.”
Then it was used as a powder magazine. That didn’t work out so well, which is why it looks the way it does today.
The great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (sorry, “Istanbul”) was converted into a mosque by Mehmet II the Conqueror. After Attaturk’s revolution, it became a museum. There is some talk about making it a church once more. We shall see.
January 12th, 2011 | 3:11 pm
Personally, I would like to live in a beautiful old church that had been repurposed into housing. It would give me comfort to know that Christians had been praying among those old stones for decades, even centuries. And, if my family lived there, the prayers would continue. Though I hate to see a church fall into disuse, if the architecture was beautiful, I’d rather see it deconsecrated and made into housing than torn down, or turned into a cesspit like Limelight, the scuzzy disco (now closed, Deo gratias) that opened inside a deconsecrated Episcopal church in Manhattan.
January 12th, 2011 | 4:39 pm
Stuart is confusing two different structures: the Parthenon, in Athens, was converted into a powder magazine, the Pantheon, in Rome, was converted into a church.
January 12th, 2011 | 11:23 pm
Rod Dreher,
The former Limelight (formerly an Episcopal church on 20th/6th avenue in Manhattan) is now an upscale shopping complex. It’s actually quite beautiful, with a lovely dessert/pastry/ice cream court and a very nice children’s book vendor inside.
So there are now vendors in the temple.
Joe
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