Print Email Facebook Twitter The Church Cross and the Storm of 1674 Title The Church Cross and the Storm of 1674: The Intangible Enigma of Utrecht Author Nalmbantis, Dimitri (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment; TU Delft History & Complexity) Contributor Korthals Altes, E. (mentor) Degree granting institution Delft University of Technology Programme Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences Project AR2A011 Date 2021-04-12 Abstract In Medieval Utrecht, five churches were built to form a Christian cross in plan. After centuries of turmoil, in 1674, a storm with multiple tornadoes passed right through the city, damaging most of the churches badly. During these thirty minutes of extreme weather conditions, the skyline had lost most of its church towers, spires and roofs. Since the city was poor, most of the churches were rebuilt in a simple way. This was completely in contrast to the majestic potential to have all churches at the ends of the cross built monumentally with two towers and needle spires, generating a great symmetry with the tallest tower, the Domtoren, in the middle. This would have made the invisible cross plan to be unmistakable in the skyline. On street level, the Domkerk lost the entire nave, and the Pieterskerk’s front facade, including the two towers, collapsed. The latter created a beautiful opening straight towards the Dom, but after renovations the design of the Pieterskerk didn’t make sense anymore on a larger scale. The storm and the following actions made it impossible for the city to make use of the architectural potential, resulting in the invisible enigma the cross forms in Utrecht today. Subject AR2A011UtrechtChurch crossStorm1674 To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:622cc066-cf0f-4215-bbd5-532990f5536a Coordinates 52.052634, 5.071672 Part of collection Student theses Document type student report Rights © 2021 Dimitri Nalmbantis Files PDF 210402_Final_Thesis_Dimit ... 577906.pdf 36.22 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:622cc066-cf0f-4215-bbd5-532990f5536a/datastream/OBJ/view