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Keeping Faith: How Citizens Are Shaping the Future of Our Religious Heritage
30 September 2024
The Netherlands and Flanders are home to thousands of religious buildings that have been left empty due to society's growing secularisation. While some are threatened with demolition, others await repurposing. The best way to ensure these buildings have a meaningful and sustainable future is by reco
Discovering 16th Century Antwerp While Pinching Your Nose
23 September 2024
When it comes to history, we know sixteenth-century Antwerp mainly through the gaze of merchants, artists and intellectuals. But who else was walking around there? What did the international city sound like? How did it smell? With the cathedral as the focal point, Wendy Wauters describes the city on
Antwerp’s Expunged Protestant Past
16 January 2024
Two Antwerp monks were burned at the stake five hundred years ago because of their Lutheran beliefs. They were the first martyrs of the Reformation. Their deaths remind us of a piece of the faded religious past of the Low Countries: Lutheranism and Calvinism first flourished in the South, with Antwe
#23 – Geert Groote and the Modern Devotion’s Fight Against the Excesses of the Church
14 September 2023
In the late Middle Ages, innovative ideas entered the Roman Catholic Church thanks to a Dutch priest. Geert Groote is known as the father of the Modern Devotion, a religious movement, that can be considered one of the forerunners of the Reformation. His spiritual legacy had followers across Europe f
#22 – When a Miracle Turned Amsterdam into a Holy Town
22 May 2023
Before Amsterdam made an international name for itself as a port and trading town, it became known as a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. Thanks to a Eucharistic miracle.
Yair Callender Brings the Everyday Into Ceremonial Art
3 April 2023
Yair Callender's sculptures and installations are part of a tradition with a religious element. It’s difficult however to pin the Surinamese-Dutch artist down to one approach, as both he and his art are as philosophical as they are practical.
Religious Heritage With an Injection of Contemporary Art at Museum Krona
30 March 2023
Museum Krona combines centuries-old crucifixes and monstrances with contemporary paintings and photographs. This results in particularly fresh presentations in a gem of a museum. The authenticity of the place is guaranteed by five nuns who still live and work in the abbey complex.
Pope Adrian VI, the ‘Barbarian From the North’ Who Wanted to Reform the Vatican
17 October 2022
Five hundred years ago, Adrianus of Utrecht was unexpectedly elected pope. The ambitions of the Netherlands' first and only pope in history were great. He wanted to reform the administration of the Vatican, but his untimely death put an end to his plans. His pontificate lasted barely twenty months,
Sinners and Saints: Faith and Religion in the Low Countries
5 April 2022
Where do the Dutch names of the days of the week come from? Which Flemish miraculous girl did Nick Cave write a song about? Who are Vagdavercustis, Nehalennia and the Brethren of the Common Life? Why were the Frisians difficult to convert to Christianity? Why were the Jews blamed for the Black Plagu