Middelburg - Nieuwe Kerk

In Middelburg, the two-aisled Nieuwe Kerk (16th C.), the parish church, and the aisleless Koorkerk (early 14th C.), the abbey church (beautiful reticulated vaulting), were originally joined. Since the parish church had no choir of its own, the west end of the monks' church, known as the middle choir, was used as the choir for the lay congregation. Over this is the tower known as Lange Jan ("Long John"). In this church are the double tomb of the brothers Jan and Cornelis Evertsen, two admirals killed in the English war of 1666, and memorial tablets for Count William of Holland (d. 1256), king of Germany, and his brother Floris (d. 1258). The magnificent marble tomb was the last great work of Rombout Verhulst (1680-82). After their restoration both churches were provided with organs by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The organ in the Koorkerk (built in 1481) came from St Nicolaaskerk in Utrecht, that in the Nieuwe Kerk (1892) from a Protestant church in Amsterdam.