Sint Janskerk

The Sint Janskerk in Gouda, the Netherlands, is a large Gothic church, known especially for its stained glass windows, for which it has been placed on the list of the top 100 Dutch monuments.

The stained glass windows were made and installed primarily by the brothers Dirk and Wouter Crabeth I, in the years 1555-1571.

During the Reformation the church was spared, because the city fathers sided with the reigning king Philip II of Spain, rather than William the Silent, representing the Orange rebels.

In 1573 the Gouda council prohibited the practice of Roman Catholic religion and in the summer it was opened for the Protestant Dutch Reformed faith, which it still has today.

In 1954 the Van der Vorm chapel was added to house the 7 regulierenglazen from the Monastery of the Clerks Regular (Regulierenklooster) in Gouda.

In earlier days this Monastery, in which Erasmus lived from 1486-1491, was located in the land van Stein (in the neighborhood of Gouda).

Later during the war, in 1944, when 51,000 men were called for service from Schiedam and Rotterdam, about 2800 were marched to Gouda, where they spent the night in this church on November 10.