Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk

The Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk, also known as the Grote Sint-Laurenskerk or Great Church of Alkmaar, is a former Reformed Protestant church in Alkmaar, Netherlands. Located on Koorstraat (choir street), this late Gothic basilica was constructed from 1470 to 1518 and ranks as the largest medieval church in the city. Since 1996 it has held no religious function; instead it serves as a cultural venue, concert hall, and heritage site under the ownership of the Stichting Behoud Monumentale Kerken Alkmaar (foundation for the preservation of heritage churches in Alkmaar). The building is recognized as a Dutch national monument (inventory no. 7258) and draws particular renown for housing two exceptional historic organs and significant art collections.

The site has held religious buildings since the early tenth century, when a wooden church stood there. That structure burned in 1133 during a Frisian attack. A successor church was destroyed by fire in 1328, and by 1382 a double-church arrangement existed, with a second church dedicated to Saint Matthias. A tower project begun in the fifteenth century collapsed on 29 October 1468, killing two nuns and damaging the double church. This disaster prompted the decision to erect a far grander structure befitting Alkmaar's growing prosperity. The foundation stone of the present church was laid on 9 June 1470. The building was completed in 1518, though interior work continued thereafter. In 1429 the site witnessed the Miracle of Alkmaar, when a priest named Folkert spilled consecrated wine that reportedly turned to blood. Following the Reformation, the church passed into Protestant hands in 1573. The Dutch Iconoclasm was relatively mild here, yet altars, altarpieces, confessionals, and saintly images were removed. A major restoration began in August 1923 but was suspended four years later for lack of funds; it resumed in 1940 and concluded in 1949. The church was deconsecrated in 1996. In April 2018, side panels of Maarten van Heemskerck's altarpiece returned on loan for six months to mark the 500th anniversary of the church's completion.

The church's holdings span fine art, historic musical instruments, funerary monuments, and liturgical objects. Its art collection includes a significant assembly of sacred paintings, among them an unsigned Last Judgment dated 1518 characteristic of Flemish sacred art. The church once held works by the Master of Alkmaar, an early sixteenth-century Dutch painter named after a series of seven panels, the Works of Mercy, originally from this church and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The church also preserves its reliquary, the Reliquary of the Holy Blood of Alkmaar. Richly ornamented furnishings include a baptistery from 1605, a pulpit from 1665, and painted wooden ceilings bearing the arms of Holland, Charles V, Alkmaar, and Delft. The church formerly contained the librije, a chained library established in the early sixteenth century above the south portal, which held approximately 300 volumes including incunabula, sixteenth-century works, manuscripts, and Christoffel Plantijn's eight-volume Biblia Regia; the collection moved to the town hall in 1819, then to the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar in 1875, and finally to the Regionaal Archief Alkmaar in 1966.

The church's most celebrated possessions are its two organs. The choir organ, built by Jan van Covelens in 1511, is the oldest playable organ in the Netherlands and among the oldest in Europe. Originally a single-manual instrument, it was later expanded to two manuals. The great organ at the west end was built by Jacobus Caltus van Hagerbeer and finished in 1645, with magnificent casework designed by Jacob van Campen stretching from floor to vault, integrating the instrument into the church architecture. Caesar van Everdingen painted the enormous canvas shutters. Frans Caspar Schnitger rebuilt the organ in 1723, preserving the case but creating a new instrument in the North German style, reusing much old flue pipework while adding new mixtures and reeds. Approximately 90 percent of the original material survives, making it one of the most important organs in the world. It was restored by Dirk Andries Flentrop in 1947-1949 and again in 1982-1986, becoming renowned as one of Europe's finest 'Bach organs.' The carillon comprises 35 bells: the hour bell (bourdon) was cast by Casparus and Johannes Moer in 1525 with a diameter of 130 cm and weight of roughly 1950 kg; the largest sixteen bells were cast by Melchior de Haze in 1688-1689 for this turret, joined by twelve smaller bells from the weigh house also by de Haze, and seven modern bells by Eijsbouts. The church also holds numerous tombs from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, including the tomb of Floris V, Count of Holland (d. 1296), the painter Caesar van Everdingen, Anna Roemers Visscher, and Gherardus Havingha, city organist.

The Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk is located at Koorstraat 2 in Alkmaar. It is formally owned by the Stichting Behoud Monumentale Kerken Alkmaar, which conducts restoration work and rents the space for weddings, concerts, and cultural initiatives. The main part of the church is open to visitors free of charge, though admission is charged for access to the upper levels and outer viewing areas. The building is mostly closed in winter and open for tourists in summer months or by appointment. A bar has been installed in the southern transept. The church is used as a concert hall, particularly on account of its two organs, and hosts various cultural activities organized by the Stichting Theater De Vest / Grote Sint Laurenskerk.