Gouda

The Sint-Janskerk at Gouda is a hundred and twenty-three metres long, the longest church in the Netherlands, and it holds the Goudse Glazen - seventy-two stained glass windows, largely of the sixteenth century, of which the greatest were made by the brothers Dirck and Wouter Crabeth in the 1550s and 1560s. What makes the set exceptional is that it survived: the church went Protestant in 1573, and instead of destroying the Catholic windows the town kept them and commissioned new ones on Protestant subjects, so the sequence runs across the Reformation with donors from both sides recorded. They were removed and hidden in 1939 and put back after the war. The town hall of 1450 stands free in the middle of the market square, the Waag of 1668 holds a cheese museum, and the cheese market is staged on Thursday mornings in summer.

History

In the Middle Ages the Van der Goude family built a fortified castle on the Gouwe, from which family and town took their names. The marshy area developed over two centuries: by 1225 a canal linked the Gouwe to the waterways and its mouth became a harbour, and in 1272 Floris V, Count of Holland, granted the town city rights (Wikipedia, Gouda, South Holland).

What to look for

• Seventy-two stained glass windows - the Crabeth brothers' work of the 1550s and 1560s.
• Glass across the Reformation - Catholic windows kept and Protestant ones added.
• The longest church in the country - a hundred and twenty-three metres.
• A free-standing town hall - the 1450 building in the middle of the market square.

When to go

April to October; Thursday mornings for the cheese market. A day.

Practical notes

The church closes for services and the glass needs a bright day to read properly. The cheese market is a staged demonstration on summer Thursdays. Most cheese sold as Gouda is made nowhere near here.

Nearby

Oudewater is east; Schoonhoven is south-east; Rotterdam is south-west.

Key facts