Kerk Niehove
For centuries, the church at Niehove was visited by storks. The residents of Niehove valued this so highly that, in 1668, a stained-glass window depicting the church with a stork’s nest in the centre was installed.
Take a closer look
One of the ministers at Niehove, L.M. de Boer, even wrote a welcome poem for the birds comprising no fewer than eight stanzas, in which the birds were celebrated. From 1882 onwards, however, the birds were no longer to be seen, despite the efforts of the church wardens to provide them with ‘a dwelling fitted out in accordance with the requirements of the times’. This church, situated in the centre of the mound in the village of Niehove, was built around the year 1230. Inside, there are dark brown pews, a black pulpit and, opposite it, much lighter-coloured gentlemen’s pews. The painted communion table, like the pulpit, dates from around 1800 and stands within the seventeenth-century baptismal screen.