Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The choir's floor holds a simple slab marked with a lantern—
the
Grave of Frans Hals
(Graf van Frans Hals), Haarlem's own
master artist of the Golden Age. When he was a child, Hals' fam-
ily moved to Haarlem, and he lived and worked here all his life,
worshipping in the Grote Kerk. A friend of mayors and preach-
ers, he chronicled middle-class citizens and tavern life, produc-
ing hundreds of masterpieces...and 10 kids. (
J
See the Frans Hals
Museum Tour, page 221.)
At both ends of the brass barrier, look for the endearing
knee-level carvings of the “pil-
lar biter.” The message of these
car vings, aimed at those who
were “more Catholic than even
the Pope,” was this: Don't go
overboard on devotion.
Mor e t h a n a t ho u s a nd
wealthy people are buried under
the church's pavement stones.
Only those with piles of money
to give to the church could be
buried in a way that gave them an advantage in the salvation derby.
But even though the dead bodies were embalmed, they stunk.
Imagine being a peasant sitting here, trying to think about God...
and thinking only of the stench of well-fed bodies rotting below.
Here is where the phrase “stinking rich” was born.
• Looking down the nave (without actually walking there yet), on the
left side is the...
Pulpit
The pulpit, elaborately carved from oak in 1679, is topped with a
tower-shaped roof. Brass handrails snake down the staircase, ser-
pents fleeing the word of God. In this simply decorated Protestant
church, the pulpit is perhaps the most ornate element, direct-
ing worshippers' eyes to the speaker. During the Reformation,
Protestants changed the worship service. As teaching became more
important than ritual, the pulpit was given a higher profile.
• Suspended between columns, between the center of the church and the
tourists' entrance, are...
Three Little Ships
Sailing under the red-white-and-blue Dutch flag and the flag of
a rearing lion, ships like these helped make Holland the world's
number one sea-trading nation in the 1600s.
The biggest model ship of the three is a frigate. These fast,
heavily armed, three-masted, fully rigged ships rode shotgun for
