Heilige Martha
s-Gravenhage, NL
Three-aisled, neo-Gothic hall church under a saddle roof, with a 5/8 closed choir, three transepts, straight closed side chapels on either side of the choir, and a saddle roof tower next to the front facade. On the slate-covered roof there is a narrow lantern. The cornice is decorated with a pointed arch frieze. In the front facade there is a rose window under which a series of seven pointed arch windows. The entrance portal is provided with brick archivolts and has a double door with heavy decorative fittings. On either side of this there are two pointed arch windows. In the gable top there are five pointed arch niches, partly with windows and a hatch. The saddle roof tower on the left is also provided with pointed arch windows. To the left and right of the front facade there are entrance portals under a lean-to roof. The three transepts are externally marked by gables. The brickwork is decorated with bands and figures of yellow brick, and a pointed arch frieze under the eaves. Three-light pointed arch windows are placed in the gables. The choir has pointed arch windows with brick tracery and a pointed arch frieze under the eaves. On either side of the choir is a service building; on the side of the Stortenbekerstraat, closed off by gables and covered by a saddle roof. A decorative brick border is placed under the eaves. Both service buildings have a staircase tower with a spire. The building on the north side serves as a sacristy. Between this building and the transept is the parish hall, which is closed off at the top by an open balustrade. The interior of the church, inspired by the nave of the Grote of Sint Jacobskerk in The Hague, contains spacious side chapels with transverse wooden barrel vaults that connect to the central nave under a barrel vault in the lengthwise direction of the church. The barrel vaults are decorated with decorative paintings. The church has articulated brick piers, covered with yellow facing bricks alternating with red bands. In the spandrels on either side of the arches are round niches with six-passes. The side chapels on either side of the choir have brick cross-ribbed vaults; the choir has a radiating vault. The profiled brick triumphal arch to the choir rests on two short columns of polished black granite with hardstone leaf capitals. The church has polychrome tiled floors. One-manual organ made by JW Walker for St. Mary's Church Stoke d' Abernon in 1860, purchased in 2003 and installed in St. Martha's Church. The inventory includes a carved limestone pulpit tub; two neo-Gothic statues of the Sacred Heart and Mary, as well as a small communion rail with rich carvings in neo-Baroque style from the first half of the 19th century. The parsonage garden to the south of the church is enclosed by a brick garden wall.