Santa Anna Church

Santa Anna at Noord is the oldest Catholic parish on Aruba, founded in 1776, though the neo-Gothic building standing now was completed in 1916 after two earlier churches. What makes it worth the stop is the woodwork: an oak altar, communion rails and pulpit carved in the Netherlands in the 1870s by Hendrik van der Geld, densely worked with figures and tracery in the neo-Gothic manner, won at an exhibition and given to the parish. It is a great deal more elaborate than the plain white exterior suggests. The church sits in the middle of Noord, a short drive inland from the hotel strip.

What you actually see

• The carved oak altar - Dutch neo-Gothic work from the 1870s.
• The pulpit and communion rails - by the same carver, densely worked.
• The 1916 building - the third church on a parish founded in 1776.
• The contrast - a plain exterior and an elaborate interior.

When to go

Year-round; open outside services, with Sunday mornings busiest. It takes twenty minutes. It sits between the hotel strip and the Alto Vista chapel, so it fits into a short circuit.

Honest expectations

It is a parish church and the visit is short; the woodwork is the reason to stop. It closes during services. There is no interpretation inside beyond a leaflet. Noord itself is a residential village with little else.

Nearby

Alto Vista chapel is ten minutes north; Palm Beach is ten minutes west.