Photo: Pniëlkerk

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Pniëlkerk
1958-1960 / Cornelis Trappenburg

Van Ghentlaan 47, Hilversum

The Christian Reformed Pniëlkerk on the Van Ghentlaan was built to a design by the Hilversum architect Cornelis Trappenberg (1892-1978) and was taken into use in 1960. The church is prominently located on the visual axis at the end of the Van Ghentlaan and is an exemplary example of a church from the Reconstruction period. The church building with attached sexton’s house and the detached bell tower were designated a municipal monument in 2008.

Moors

To replace the church on Zeedijk, which had become too small, the Christian Reformed congregation bought a plot of land on Van Ghentlaan in the late 1950s for the construction of a new church. The site was located in the middle of the moors on an undeveloped part of Hilversum, south of the Diependaalselaan. The surrounding buildings of the Staatslieden- and Zeeheldenbuurt were built in the following years.

Reconstruction style

Architect Trappenburg designed a rectangular church building in a typical reconstruction style. The building was built in light brown, clean brick and was given a gently sloping gable roof. The concrete frame of the entrance is typical, which can also be found at the high, cantilevered windows in the side wall. The sexton’s house was connected to the church with an intermediate part. Characteristic of the construction period is the freestanding bell chair with one loud bell, which consists of an open construction of concrete uprights and cross beams.

Cornelis Trappenburg

Trappenburg had an architectural office in Hilversum and previously designed the Reformed Noorder- and Oosterkerk in Hilversum. A church related to the Pniëlkerk is the former Meeting Church on Minckelerstraat from 1963. Before the Second World War, he built villas and (residential) shop houses in a business style related to the Amsterdam School and Dudok.

Artwork

Above the entrance is a ceramic mosaic by Pieter van Velzen (1911-1990) and Jan Oosterman (1876-1963) from 1961. The cubist scene concerns Jacob wrestling with the Angel, the scene from the Old Testament to which the name Pniël refers.

Adjustments

In the eighties the windows were renewed, whereby the characteristic rod divisions were lost. Trespa plates were placed over the concrete moldings. In 1994 a bicycle cellar was built under the platform. The church is now being adapted and made more sustainable, while retaining the original facade details.