Haarlem's St. Bavo Church
On our first full day in the Netherlands, my partner and I traveled to Haarlem by train. We left Leiden quite early reason being we still had jetlag and we didn't think it necessary to try and sleep some more when we really couldn't. We also chose Leiden as our base to explore other Dutch cities and towns due to its close proximity to many of the places we thought of visiting. In fact, on the morning of our trip to Haarlem, our train ride took all of 19 minutes. There was admission to St. Bavo Church but it was minimal. Really affordable.
As can be expected when comparing churches in Northern Europe to the Catholic churches of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Malta, St. Bavo was not as intricately decorated. There was likewise the absence of statues of saints. The church was beautiful just the same and truly interesting to visit.
Here's a closer look of the altar, not obstructed by the huge chandelier in the middle of the church's nave.
A close up view of the main altar
A view of the back of the church
The main entrance to the church. These doors are located right under the organ. These doors as can be seen here were closed and locked during our visit. It wasn't Sunday and so there were no services.
There were no pews but individual chairs inside the church. There was no mass being celebrated at the time of our visit which was good. We had all the time to look at everything. In fact, we went around the entire church twice.
The church's organ in the rear of the church
Intricate detail at the base of the church organ
Stained glass windows
Some lovely columns inside the church
If I remember correctly, there was quite a number of gravestones on the church floor. This was one of them.