De Grote of St. Laurenskerk Rotterdam/ LS/ 1:300 [FERTIG]

Model: St. Laurence Church in Rotterdam
Scale: 1:300
Publisher: Leon Schuijt
Design: Jaap Zomer
Dimensions: 23.5 cm x 37 cm x 24 cm high
Number of Parts: 302

A main feature of this beautiful church is the main organ. It is the largest mechanical organ in Europe. It was built by the firm of Marcussen and housed approximately 7600 pipes. There are two other organs in the building; one in the nave and the other in the choir. The church was begun in 1449 and fully restored by 1968.

St. Laurence church will become a companion model to St. Bavo Cathedral. They both are built on black bases and share similar construction methods.

Window construction is very straightforward. The window tabs are folded inward back on themselves to create some depth in the casing. Then the window panel is glued in place from behind.

Thank you Gert.

You know how much I appreciate you adding these personal and informative additions to my threads. They add so much to the build.

Thanks and Cheers from Ontario,

John

Hi Ricardo and Fred,
Let's hope the build lives up to expectations.

Fred, I have Gert to thank for all his informative, background Netherlands information.

And so we begin with De Grote of St. Laurenskerk.

I thought it might be kind of fun this time to build the cathedral up wall by wall and take photos as they go up, rather than glue everything together like a box and setting it on the base. Perhaps it will feel more like a real construction site where the masons are bringing the walls up from the ground.

Here are the first two walls; the west and north walls of the north transept (the northwest corner of the north transept).

... the addition of the northwest transept tower.

... the addition of the east wall of the north transept.

... and the addition of the northeast tower of the north transept.

Viewing the development of the north transept from the back...

Walls of the choir and the apse are up.

The walls are up in the northeast corner of the cathedral. They form the end of the north aisle. I assume the bump out is a small chapel.

The roof of the aisle behind the transept is very interesting. Its gable ends feature two stained glass windows. The crosses have not been built out yet. They will have four cross arms.

The roof deck makes it much easier to install this style of roof. The roof has something firm to sit on. You can make adjustments around all its edges until everything is just right. Many dry fits are required as notches are needed to fit the roof around parts projecting out onto the deck.

This section of the north aisle looks like a complete little building unto itself.

Historically, because it took so long to complete these churches and cathedrals, finished portions were often used for worship services. This could go on for years.

This concept is used in Ken Follett's, 'The Pillars of the Earth'. On page 293, Tom the Builder and Prior Philip discuss plans for the new cathedral.

Philip: "Still, even with just thirty masons, I could have the east end completed after five years."
Tom: "Yes, and you could use it for services, and set up a new shrine for the bones of Saint Adolphus."
Philip: "Indeed." Philip was really excited now. "I had been thinking it would be decades before we could have a new church..."

Hi Ricardo,
You are right. Templates are so helpful in keeping complicated assemblies under control. If I write a book about card modelling, templates will be chapter one.

Hi Bruno,
Yes, the apse will be a good challenge.

Hello All,
Bruno sent me a most useful internet reference tool (Wikipedia) for those who would like to look up cathedral terminology. There are hot links that will take you to fine photographic examples of the glossary entries. When you open it up you will see a plan view of a cruciform church. Diagram Number 9 (yellow region) is where we will soon be with this thread construction.

Thanks Bruno.

Here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_diagram

The south transept and the bit of aisle tucked in behind it has been built.

Oh Gert,

Thank you! Do you know what I'd really love to hear on these organs at Laurenskerk? Taccata and fugue in D minor. Can't you just hear the transept and choir organs speaking to each other in the opening bars and then the main organ coming in with that one, deep, resonating note at the bottom? Wow!

John

Now, as I listen to organ music, we begin the ambulatory. I love this word. It is derived from the word amble, which means to walk or move at a slow, relaxed pace. And that's exactly what people did in an ambulatory. It was not only a way of passing around behind the apse of the cathedral so as to not disturb services in progress, it provided a pathway to slowly walk around the east end of the church and visit the apsidal chapels.

The west end of cathedrals were built to impress, but it's the east end that gives them so much of their character.

Here's an example of an apse and ambulatory being built on a Romanesque basilica. Notice that the apse, the ambulatory and the chapels are round.

another round ambulatory. Recognize the cathedral?

Over time, the end of the apse on most cathedrals became angular. The chapels varied.

Sometimes there were no apsidal chapels...

... but most large cathedrals had them. (Ricardo, the one on the right is for you.)

So now it's time to get our Rotterdam cathedral's ambulatory under way. All the ingredients are seen in the photo.

Good Morning Helmut.

You are right. Now this begs the question, "What are the names of the other examples shown?"

Thanks for the nice comment.

Cheers...John

Right on the money Bruno. Chartres it is.
John

Here are the walls of the ambulatory in place. Notice that the roof deck of the ambulatory is not precisely on the lines marking where it should mate all around the polygonal faces of the apse. I got a bit lazy here and glued the whole unit of the ambulatory into place in one go. It's not a critical join as it will be covered by the sloping roofs coming down from below the clerestory windows.

If it was a critical and exposed joint between wall and roof, I would have made a shelf all the way around the apse walls, cut off the roof deck tabs (or fold them under) and carefully glued the roof deck down onto the shelf. It's a much more accurate method of going about the task. The way I've done it, the roof deck was just pushed up against the apse.

Sorry for going on so much about what I didn't do, but perhaps it's a useful tip that could come in handy.

The roof of the ambulatory is quite unique. It does not slope downward from below the clerestory windows as I earlier mentioned; it is a roof with a ridgepole. The roof panels rise to the ridgepole all around the apse, fall back downward toward the apse walls and then level off to a horizontal ledge.

Ricardo was quite right. A template is necessary here to maintain all the roof angles.

I must make an observation here. Notice the white, rectangular tabs around the inner edges of the roof in the right photograph. They will act as vertical spacers that will hold the roof up at the correct height above the roof deck. Clever. It's the alternative to the shelf method I mentioned earlier.

The ambulatory roof...

... is on.

The fit of parts on this lovely model have thus far been excellent. It has been a very enjoyable build to bring this half of the cathedral to completion.

Now our attention turns to the west tower. Perhaps while we were working on the east end, a team of labourers have been excavating a large, deep hole for the footings of the west tower. And now, as we shift our attentions to the west end, the masons have brought the foundations to ground level.

But what is this? Has there been a miscalculation? We note that the footprint of the tower is not parallel with what will become the nave. It is not parallel with the transepts! Has the master mason erred?