Today we paid a visit to Breda, The Netherlands. And while my wife and daughter went shopping, I paid a visit to the Church of Our Lady.

The chruch is in the center of the old city center, which makes it hard to photograph it completely. You can photograph it from closeby, but then you get perspective distortion.

The church dates from 1410, but was the building was completed in 1547. The style of the church is Brabantine Gothic and it is in the shape of a Latin cross. The tower has a height of 97 meters.
It started as a Catholic church, but it became Protestant in 1637 after the Reformation.

To photograph the side of the chruch I had to be very closeby again.
It's funny tp see there is a terrace right next to the church. It isn't a very uncommon thing to have bars close to the church since people back in the days often visited a bar directly after church finished.
I've seen the same in more cities.

As most churches, you could go inside, which I did. The first thing I noticed was that there wasn't a lot of colorful decoration. There weren't a lot of paintings and the stained-glass windows were a bit boring. The Catholic churches I have visited are more colorful, but Protestant churches often are less colorful and less decorated. The ideas of the Reformation makes them focus more on the Bible and the word of God then on images and decorations.

What did caught my eye was the beautiful ceiling. When I was in the middle of the church I looked up and saw this beautiful symmetric image. This would have been a great shot to submit for my photo contest since it has the subject SYMMETRY this week. Do check out the other contestants by the way: #FPC

Also insteresting were the tombs in the church floor. I've seen it before, but this church really had quite a few of them. Some of them are members of the Nassau family, ancestors of the current Dutch royal family.
The one below is from a mand and women that died in 1630 and 1623. He was a 'coopman', which translates as merchant. I couldn't find why he deserved a place in the church.

Here is another one with some nice engravings.

In one of the 'rooms' in one side of the church there was this 'thing', of which I don't know what it is. So if anyone knows, please enlighten me.

There were some decorations in the form of engravings.

What I also have never seen before was a collection of pieces of modern art in a church. A lot of them were flower themed like the following ones.

I found the next one a bit gruesome. At first I didn't see what it was, but it looks like a human body or parts of a human body with holes where they sticked flowers in.

And a final shot of the church in between the narrow streets.

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Friendlymoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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