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432 Route 52. GOUDA. From Rotterdam
Rotterdam, see p. 300. The train traverses a district of canals
and pastures. 4‘/) M. Capelle; 7M. Niewwerkerk. The line skirts
the E. side of the extensive Zuidplas-Polder. Beyond (410 M.)
Moordrecht the Kromme Gouw is crossed.
121/, M. Gouda. — Hore. pr Zam, in the market-place, 25 R. at
2-21/2, B. 3/4, D. from 13/3, omn. 1/4 fl., good.
Two hours suffice to inspect the stained glass in the Groote Kerk and
to visit the Museum.
Gouda, a town of some importance at the confluence of the
Gouw and the Yssel, with 23,100 inhab. and large brick-fields, is
encircled with fine old trees, which almost conceal it from the
railway-station. On leaving the station we take the street to the
left, which soon turns to the right and leads across several canals
to the (8 min.) market-place, with the town-hall (see below). Near
it is the Groote Kerk; entrance on the S. side of the choir; the
sacristan (20 c.) lives at No. 33, opposite.
The Groote Kerk (St. John), founded in 1485 and rebuilt after
a fire in 1552, is a striking example of late-medieval art. The
round-arched arcades are borne by thirty-six circular pillars. The
lofty barrel-vaulting is of wood. The beautiful *Stained Glass
Windows illustrate the transition from the ecclesiastical style of
glass-painting to the secular heraldic and allegorical style.
There are in a}l 3{ large and 13 smaller stained-glass windows, pre-
sented by princes, towns, and private individuals after the above-men-
tioned fire. The best of these (12 in number) were executed by the
brothers Wouter and Dirck Crabeth in 1555-77; the others being the work
of other more or less well-known masters (Lambert van Noort, Willem
Tybaut) down to 1603. They have recently been admirably restored. The
subjects of the older windows are Scriptural, with figures of saints and of
the donors, those of the later are armorial bearings or allegorical repre-
sentations. The following are by the brothers Crabeth: No. 5. (beginning
from the main entrance), Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; 6. Judith
and Holofernes; 7. Last Supper, presented by Philip Il. of Spain, whose
portrait it contains; 8. Punishment of Heliodorus, the desecrator of the
Temple; 12 (farther on, in the retro-choir), Nativity; 14. Preaching of John
the Baptist; 15. Baptism of Christ; 16. Preaching of Christ; 18. John the
Baptist in prison; 22. Christ driving the merchants and money-changers out
of the Temple, a gift of William the Silent, afterwards enlarged ; 23. Christ
washing the feet of the Disciples; at the top, Elijah’s sacrifice ; Below,
Peter and John healing the lame man; above, Philip baptising the
Ethiopian eunuch. — The original cartoons of the brothers Crabeth, and
also the cartoons for Lucas van Leyden’s windows destroyed by the fire
of 1552, are preserved in the sacristy.
The late-Gothic Stadhuis (1449-59), in the middle of the market-
place, is a most noteworthy building, with a Renaissance outside
staircase by Cools (1603). Below it is the Meat Market. — The
tasteful Weigh House, by Pieter Post (1668), also in the market-
place, is adorned with a masterly *Relief by Barth. Eggers.
The Town Musgum (adm. 25c.), in the market-place, chiefly
contains antiquities connected with the town, and a few corporation
pictures and portraits by Wouter Crabeth the Younger, Corn. Ketel
(b. at Gouda in 1578), and others. The chief objects of interest are |
