St Genoveva Church
The Sint Genoveva church in Jelsum dates from the core of the twelfth century and was built in the Romanesque style of tuff stone, which is still clearly visible on the north side. The brick choir dates from the fifteenth century and has Gothic windows. Among other things, the well-known theologian Balthasar Bekker is buried in the church.
About this building
The terp village of Jelsum is located just north of Leeuwarden on the east bank of the former Middelzee on the main road from Leeuwarden to Holwerd. The church of Jelsum still appears to a large extent in its earliest, twelfth-century Romanesque form on the north side. The wall is adorned with two rows of arches one above the other, separated by Irises, and both covered by round-arch friezes. In the upper arches you can see traces of closed small Romanesque windows. The brick choir dates from the fifteenth century and has Gothic windows. The south side is clad with brick, with here and there a tuff fragment with curved arches. Gothic windows were later added to the southern wall. The southern entrance is a combination of a rectangle with a pointed arch. The shape of a visual niche can be seen under the plaster above the entrance. The gothic saddleback tower is built of brick. The eastern top façade is decorated with niches. The tower was converted in 1775 and again in 1906. The organ was built in 1834 by the Leeuwarden organ builders L. and J. van Dam using material from an older cabinet organ, which had already been rebuilt as a church organ in Jelsum in the eighteenth century. The organ was restored in 2011 by Orgelmakerij Bakker & Timmenga in Leeuwarden. The former Reformed Church of Jelsum was taken over by the Alde Fryske Tsjerken Foundation on 30 March 2017 at the same time as that of Koarnjum and came under the management of a Local Commission. It rents out the church for mourning and wedding services and other special meetings.
