Culemborg / Kuilenburg / Kuylenburgh

A baptismal font of around 1400-1500 made of three materials (sandstone, limestone and brick) is reported in the Museum Elisabeth Weeshuis, in Culemborg [www.collectiegelderland.nl/organisaties/museumculemborg/voorwerp-0290] [accessed 21 January 2016]; the object is clearly a composite, and the three parts, basin, stem and lower base, form an odd object; the basin is octagonal with a plain rounded underbowl; the 'stem' is actually made of bricks cemented together into an octagon; the lower base is octagonal-to-square with spur stops at the angles; much damaged. Combinations of sandstone and limestone parts are not common in Dutch fonts, and the brick section is even rarer, which suggests none of the three parts has anything to to do with the others. The museum site [cf. supra] includes measurements and a photograph of the font, but does not give the provenance of the font. Pol Herman sent BSI an e-mail communication (27 November 2011) with the following interesting information [source not given]: "On September 14, 1566, the current Reformed Church in Culemborg is the scene of a remarkable spectacle. Count Floris I from Culemborg (1537-1598), together with a number of fellow townspeople, destroyed the rich interior of the church. The baptismal font is smashed to pieces, no altar remains intact. Mass robes go up in flames. The triptych, made by the Culemborg painter Jan Deijs, is completely destroyed. In the middle of the church the count has lunch, during which he feeds hosts soaked in mass wine to the parrot on his shoulder. The Protestant Floris is one of the nobles who opposes the regent Margaret of Parma, who takes a hard line against the followers of the new doctrine. He joins the Eedverband der Edelen (oath of nobels) and also signs the Smeekschrift (supplication). When Floris has to appear before Alva's Blood Council in 1568, he immediately leaves for his German territories. His money and goods are confiscated. In his absence, the Catholics restore parts of the church interior. An exact copy is made of the lost triptych. Only after the return of Floris in 1578 the Saint Barbara church became definitively Protestant." A further set of notes related to this font and church was received from Pol Herman (e-mail of 4 January 2022): Jesse Krol, from the Elisabeth Weeshuis at Culemborg lets me know his opinion that the baptismal font in the museum is not from the Sint Barbara church (= Grote Kerk or Nederlands Hervormde Kerk), but from the now disappeared Sint Jan church (Address : Sint Janskerkhof, 4101 CX Culemborg). The Sint Jan church was a chapel at the hamlet Lanxmeer, that was promoted to parish church around the year 1200, because the main village Pavyen and its parish church had been inundated for a long period by the rivers Lek and Linge. The area was thereafter called Nieuwstad (new city). At that time, Culemborg did not yet possess a place for worship. It was only in 1270 that the lord of Culenborch built a chapel, to please the bishop of Utrecht. It was dedicated to Saint Barbara, and stood where the present Grote Kerk is located. This Culemborg did not even remotely resemble a city. However, something was quickly done about it. Between 1340 and 1370, ramparts were built at a rapid pace, canals dug and city walls built. The river Meer was diverted, came to run behind the St. Janskerk and was promoted to a city canal. The Sint-Jan parish church was partly demolished and rebuilt between 1424 and 1429. The church has endured a lot over the centuries. During the Iconoclasm of 1566, for example, there was a lot of havoc, but the damage caused was repaired shortly afterwards. After Culemborg joined the Reformation (1579), the church gradually fell into disuse. At one point it was used as a horse stable. During the French period it served as army barracks for a while, after which the church fell into disrepair and it was demolished in 1826. The site was then furnished as the city cemetery. Few tangible traces remain of the Sint Janskerk. Some objects from Sint-Jan church, for example the hard stone ornamental vases that once adorned the entrance gate to the cemetery, ended up in the Elisabeth orphanage, that later became the museum. Unfortunately, no data has been kept about the origin of the baptismal font, this was not always well recorded in the past. His guess would be that the baptismal font of the main Saint Barbara church was thoroughly destroyed in 1566 by the iconoclasts, and that the font in the museum comes from the Sint Janskerk, which was demolished in the 19th century. Both churches are separated only by the remains of an old canal that you can see on the images.