Warfhuizen

Warfhuizen (Gronings: "Waarfhoezen") is a village in Groningen, a province in the extreme North of the Netherlands. It is situated in the municipality of the Marne.

Warfhuizen consists of two artificial mounts, called "wierden", designed to escape the waters of the Wadden, which flooded the whole region several times a year before the invention of the dykes. The smaller mount was originally built to protect a separate village called "Burum". The greater one is dominated by the church.

The Church

The church belongs to the hermitage of Our Lady the Garden Enclosed, one of the few hermitages in the Netherlands still inhabited by a hermit. The church, which was built originally in the 13th century, was replaced by a neo-classical building in 1858. Only the bell survived the ages and is even one of the oldest churchbells in the Netherlands. The building is dedicated to Saint Ludger and Our Lady under the title of "the Enclosed Garden".

The organ was built in 1910, but consists really of two organs of much earlier date (17th and 18th century.)

The church is especially known for its statue of the Mother of Sorrows, sculpted by one of the renowned procession-sculptors of Seville, Miguel Bejarano Moreno. It is because of this very Andalusian image that some Spaniards living in the Netherlands use Warfhuizen as a place of (unofficial) pilgrimage. In the last years their habit spread to all catholics in the region and even beyond: Warfhuizen became the northernmost Marian sanctuary of continental Europe. A peculiar custom, unique for this shrine, is 'the trading of the handkerchief'. Visitors bring a new white handkerchief and ask the hermit to swap it with the one held by the sorrowful Virgin whose handkerchief is then presented to someone sick, lonely or elderly.

External links

* [http://www.beslotentuin.nl The hermitage (Dutch)]