Demolition of the Reformed Pniel Church In Duindorp, Municipality of The Hague.© ANP / Dirk Hol
With the closure of hundreds of church buildings, the hypernervous society loses special places of reflection and silence. But if church communities can't maintain them, and the government doesn't take on that task, then who does? Partly following the Ipsos studyHoliness in the EnvironmentwritingcolleaguesWard Huetink and Ellen Klaver, in collaboration with Lia Hol (Friends of the Netherlands), Anique de Kruijf (Museum Catherijneconvent) and Jan Martijn Abrahamse (Christian University of Ede), an opinion contribution on this.The piece was also published in the Dutch daily.
The Netherlands is on the verge of a profound spatial change. Since World War II, about two thousand church buildings closed their doors. The next ten to twenty years are expected to add another eighteen hundred. That is almost as much as in the eighty years before and it means almost half the number of churches now used as a place of faith and meaning. This is more than just a religious development; it touches deeply on social and personal life. This also eliminates the physical space in the street where consumption, production and efficiency are not at stake.
Church buildings are deliberately designed for reflection, awe, ritual and silence. You don't move events like this to an event hall.
From the investigation Holiness in the Environment that we have just been throughIpsos I&DIt appears that almost a third of Dutch (31%) visit a church at least once a year. For many, that is also a matter of meeting: The church is part of the social infrastructure. But people look them up mostly at the moments that matter: baptism, marriage, funeral, or when they need remembrance, inspiration and comfort. You don't move events like this to an event hall. Church buildings are deliberately designed for reflection, awe, ritual and silence; qualities that have become scarce in our public space. In public space, only natural areas evoke similar feelings, the research shows.
Recently, the Health and Society Council warned of the consequences of our hypernervous society and called for it to be brought to rest to restore mental health. According to the Ipsos research, 80 percent of the Dutch who rest consciously look up. Among young people, 14% indicate that they do not have enough places for this. There is a lot of attention to performance pressure and mental overload, but at the same time we close at a high rate precisely those spaces where silence and peace can be experienced.
Meanwhile, the sentiment around church buildings is changing. Although the Netherlands continues to secularise, the Social and Cultural Planning Bureau found in 2022 that a growing proportion of non-religious people are sympathetic to public support for the preservation of church buildings. The Ipsos report furthermore shows a remarkable generational difference: Young people (19% of 18-34 year olds) want more than 50-plussers (10%) that an empty religious building retains its religious function. Older people are more in favour of converting to housing or a neighbourhood or community centre. The research shows that young Dutch people consider the preservation of religious buildings more often as a function of the municipality or government, whereas older people place this responsibility on visitors, administrators and owners.
Falling cheated
It is significant that Dutch people are increasingly concerned about the future of our church buildings, but that fewer and fewer people want to make a personal effort. It's up to the government to fix it. But anyone who hopes for it will be deceived. The Jetten cabinet has not yet spoken of religious buildings.
' It is significant that Dutch people are increasingly concerned about the future of our church buildings, but that fewer and fewer people want to make a personal effort to do so."
With a growing social need for rest and reflection and a changing sentiment around church buildings, the question arises: Whose churches are ours, and who cares?
If churches are no longer exclusively the domain of a strong community of faith, but places of broader public significance, then that responsibility cannot lie solely with that community or with the government. She touches anyone who thinks there should be common places of peace, comfort and beauty in the streets of our villages and in the neighbourhoods of our cities. Sometimes we don't notice what we're missing until it burns down. — As at the Amsterdam Vondelkerk.
Social significance
Of course, sometimes redevelopment or division of functions is inevitable. But as long as the debate is limited to possession, exploitation and square meters, the social and affective significance of church buildings remains underexposed.These are special public spaces. This calls not only for redevelopment, but for revaluation. To new relationships between faith communities, governments, neighborhood residents and companies. The question is not whether we can spare these sacred places, but whether we can afford not to protect them.
This article was published on 21 April 2026 in the Dutch daily.
Following the previously published Ipsos research Ward Huetink and Ellen clover wrote an opinion contribution. If you have any questions or want to respond to the article, please contactWard Huetinkand/orEllen Klaver.
