Box pew

Image | Posted on by Marga Demmers

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During my visit to the Dom Church where I took the photo of the window with the chandelier, I spotted this half-opened door of the box pews.

The wood carvings are quite austere, but elegant. Only the decorations of the grip (see the picture below) are a bit more elaborate, although I do not have any idea which animal is represented. Actually, the whole building is sparsely decorated, probably due to the fact that is has been a Protestant church since 1580. The upholstery looks a bit faded, I suppose it is a costly affair to refurbish all the benches.

This photo is my contribution to Norm’s Thursday Doors for this week. If you like doors, visit his page and have a look at other interesting specimens.

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15 thoughts on “Box pew”

  2. How clever of you to think of this. Most unusual. It’s got me thinking I’m too narrow in my definition of doors!
    The creature reminds me of a dolphin, but I doubt if churchgoers hundreds of years ago were really into dolphins.
    Jonah’s whale, maybe?

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    • That is good news, Becky. The thing is that my hometown has a beautiful old church too and this summer I wanted to walk around to take photos. If there are lovely pew doors, I will dedicate them to you!

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      • oh that is lovely – thank you. I think I love them so much because as a child I always wanted to sit in the pew with the doors, however if we did it was almost impossible for me to see out as this pew had sides which were over 5ft! I always enjoyed sitting in there though even if I couldn’t see very much.

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      • Now you mention it, I remember the box pews in my grandparent’s church where we used to go when we stayed with them (every summer till I was sixteen). We had a row for the whole family and that felt kind of cozy and safe. For me it surely also must have been difficult to see much except the pulpit. Thank you for reminding me of this experience.

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    • Thank you, Amy. I was already preparing to take a photo of another detail, when I thought: ‘This knob (or maybe it is just a decoration) is worth a special photo.’ Glad I got back and took this one.

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