The Selexyz Dominicanen Bookstore in Maastricht
Months ago, chachic asked me to post pictures of the Selexyz Domincanen Bookstore, which she read about in an article. I'm finally getting around to it! The article has much better pictures than I do, though, so make sure you check out that link as well!
My virtual tour begins with the exterior of a building that seems to be an old church:
In fact, it is an old church. But Maastricht, like many other places in the Netherlands, is no longer as religious as it once was. However, no one wants to tear down a church, for fear of bringing down God's wrath, but in large part because they're just beautiful and historical buildings. What they've done, then, is convert the churches for other use, while still maintaining the main structure of the churches to preserve the history. One church was even converted to a club, though that club has since gone out of business. The church we're touring, however, was turned into a sanctuary for books (and coffee!).
Here's the view of the nave you see upon first entering the Selexyz Dominacanen bookstore:
Here's one of the aisles:
And here you can kind of see the apse, which is the coffee shop portion of the store:
Isn't it great? Go check out the article linked to above for even better pictures of this gem.
My virtual tour begins with the exterior of a building that seems to be an old church:
In fact, it is an old church. But Maastricht, like many other places in the Netherlands, is no longer as religious as it once was. However, no one wants to tear down a church, for fear of bringing down God's wrath, but in large part because they're just beautiful and historical buildings. What they've done, then, is convert the churches for other use, while still maintaining the main structure of the churches to preserve the history. One church was even converted to a club, though that club has since gone out of business. The church we're touring, however, was turned into a sanctuary for books (and coffee!).
Here's the view of the nave you see upon first entering the Selexyz Dominacanen bookstore:
Here's one of the aisles:
And here you can kind of see the apse, which is the coffee shop portion of the store:
Isn't it great? Go check out the article linked to above for even better pictures of this gem.