The official name is quite a mouthful: the Church of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and Saint Don Bosco. It stands in Lauradorp, a neighbourhood closely connected with the Laura & Vereeniging mining company. That background immediately helps explain why such a large church was built here.
In Catholic South Limburg, a mining neighbourhood meant more than houses. There were also schools, associations and facilities for religious life. The church had a central place. The mining company supported its construction and made its building specialist Jan Beersma available as architect.
The building dates from 1933. Beersma’s involvement was therefore no coincidence: at the mine’s building office, he also worked on the surroundings in which employees lived. Home, work and faith were closely linked here.
Light in a miners’ church
The windows make that connection tangible. The west wall depicts, among others, Thérèse, Don Bosco with a mining family, and Mary with the Child. The stained glass is more than decoration; it also tells us who the church was intended for.
The interior also contains windows of apostles and evangelists by Jacques Verheyen from the 1950s. The contrast between clear daylight and coloured glass changes the space with the time of day. That makes a church interior harder to photograph than it first seems. What looks balanced to the eye may become a strong contrast in a photograph.
The building was withdrawn from worship on 26 September 2020. This series remains a record of the interior during my visit, rather than its present accessibility.
The photographs also preserve part of Lauradorp’s history. The mine has gone, but the building and its windows still reveal the connection with the neighbourhood.
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