The Baptist (Mennonite) Congregation
Church (Doopsgezinde Remonstrantse Gemeente in Dutch) is on
the quiet side street of Professor Regoutstraat, in the Galgenveld
district of Nijmegen. The church is part of the Arnhem-Nijmegen
Chaplaincy within the East Netherlands Group of Chaplaincies.
The group provides Sunday services in English in Arnhem, Nijmegen
and Twente, something that began in remembrance of the British
troops who died here during the war.
St Dominic's Church (St Dominicuskerk) is
a short way east of the Baptist Church, at Molkenboerstraat 7, off
Heyendaalseweg. The Catholic church was built in the Traditionalist
style, following the dictates of the Bossche School, in 1950-1952,
to a design by Dominic Thomas Nix. It was a replacement of the old
Broerstraat St Dominic's Church in the city, which had been founded
in 1375, and which underwent major rebuilding in 1866 by P J H Cuypers.
Unfortunately the old church was partly destroyed
during the Allied bombing of 1944. The Dominican nuns decided on a
new parish church complex (which included rectory, school and parish
house, plus bell tower on the south side), selecting the current
location, which was quieter and less built up at the time. The plan
was to add a monastery building, but this was never realised. The
old St Dominic's Church was demolished in 1951.
The Maranatha Church (Maranathakerk) is at
Steenbokstraat, on the corner with Dingostraat in the Hazenkamp
district. It was commissioned by the council of the Reformed Church
and built in 1962-1963 to replace the Bijkerk, which had been built
in 1929 on Groenestraat. The design was supplied by architect W
Ingwersen. The church building is part of a complex that also
consists of a joint meeting and town hall, service rooms, club rooms and a
service apartment.
Our Lady of Lourdes Church (Onze Lieve
Vrouwe (OLV) van Lourdes Kerk) at Hatertseweg 113, is more commonly
known as Lourdeskerk. It is one of the two buildings of the
Emmaus Parish, the other being Holy Anthony of Padua and St Anne Church
to the north-west. The church is a wide three-aisled Expressionist
building, constructed in 1923 based on a design by Henri Thunnissen.
The facade seems to suggest that a tower was part of the design but
wasn't built.
To the right of the church as seen from the front
lies its Lourdes Grotto. It is a copy of the cave in the French town
of Lourdes where, in 1858, the Virgin Mary is reputed to have
appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. In 1907 Pope Pius X extended
the observance a mass commemorating this event to the entire church,
and many countries built copies of the cave. This was an especially
strong tradition in the largely Catholic south-east of the
Netherlands.
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