St. John’s Cathedral: Dutch Gothic in the Netherlands

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit a Dutch church in the Brabantine Gothic style.

With its richly sculpted exterior and double row of flying buttresses, St. John’s Cathedral is unmistakably late Gothic. The church is just over 377 feet long and 203 feet wide, featuring a white, polished façade with carved statues, gargoyles, window reliefs, and an impressive set of flying buttresses decorated with more than 95 Dutch figures dating from the 19th century. On the side, the simple red brick Romanesque tower contrasts with the building’s decorative Gothic style. R. de Bruijn_Photography/Shutterstock

One of the largest churches in the Netherlands, St. John’s Cathedral (Sint-Janskathedraal in Dutch) is a great representation of the Dutch Gothic style, a prominent 14th-century variant of Gothic architecture typical of the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). It was inspired by the French Gothic style.

The story of this cathedral, however, began in 1185, when Duke Hendrik of Brabant founded the capital city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in North Brabant, Netherlands. Initially, a parish church was built in the Romanesque style between 1220 and 1340, and dedicated to St. John the Evangelist.