Old Church Tower of Gulpen

On a rise at the edge of Gulpen, surrounded by an old churchyard, stands a squat stone tower that is the oldest building in the village. The Oude Kerktoren is the only surviving part of Gulpen's medieval parish church, and it has been a national monument since 1967.

Its construction is dated to between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, with later changes, and much of it probably belongs to the eleventh century. It was built as the west tower of a Romanesque church dedicated to Saint Peter. Its walls are up to two metres thick, and given that thickness and its position on raised ground, it probably also served as a refuge and defensive tower when the village was threatened. A former rectory, dating from the second half of the seventeenth or the eighteenth century, is attached to it on two sides, and a mechanical tower clock made by B. Eijsbouts in 1930 survives inside, though it is no longer in use.

The church that once stood against the tower was replaced in the 1920s. In 1924 the new Sint-Petruskerk was completed about 200 metres away, designed by the Roermond architect Caspar Franssen in neo-Romanesque style and built of Nivelstein sandstone. The old church was then demolished, but the tower was kept, and the graves around it remained. The result is an unusual pairing: a medieval tower standing alone in its churchyard, and a few minutes' walk away the large three-aisled cross church with slate roofs and a square tower that took over its role. The newer church is itself a national monument. Nearby are the Protestant Toeristenkerk and the Gulpen-Wittem town hall, a former convent from 1932.

Visiting the tower is mostly about the setting. The rough stone walls, the small openings and the weathered gravestones give a sense of how old the settlement is, and the raised site looks across to the Gulperberg. It is a quiet place, and the churchyard is still a burial ground, so visitors should behave accordingly.

The tower suits anyone interested in medieval village architecture and in the layers of history in a small Limburg community. It takes little time to see and fits easily into a walk around the village that includes the Sint-Petruskerk, the Gulp stream running through the centre and the climb up the Gulperberg.