Cathedral of St Bavo, Haarlem

Cathedral of St Bavo, Haarlem tickets: which one to buy

Haarlem has two churches called after Saint Bavo and confusing them is the standard visitor error. The medieval one on the market square has been Protestant since 1578 and holds the famous organ; this one is the Catholic cathedral, built at the turn of the twentieth century, and stands about fifteen minutes west of the centre near the canal. Entry is cheap and covers the church and its treasury museum in the old sacristy. The tower climb is sold separately and takes you out onto a gallery with a view over the dunes towards the sea.

Architecture tours of Haarlem take in both Bavos deliberately, which is the right way to do it, since the pair explain four centuries of Dutch religious history in a single afternoon. Organ and choral concerts are frequent and inexpensive. From Amsterdam the train takes fifteen minutes, which makes the whole thing an easy half-day. The two churches are about twenty minutes apart on foot through the centre, so seeing both needs no transport.

Visiting Cathedral of St Bavo, Haarlem: what to see

Joseph Cuypers, son of the architect of the Amsterdam central station and the national museum, worked on this building from 1895 until 1930, and the long span shows in a design that changes as it goes. He began in his father's neo-Gothic manner and then turned to neo-Romanesque, with Byzantine massing and unmistakable art nouveau detail in the ironwork, glass and tiling. The result belongs to no single revival and is the more interesting for it: a broad crossing under a lantern tower, rounded arcades, and colour used deliberately throughout rather than as an afterthought.

The great organ was built in the 1920s and is one of the largest in the country. The treasury holds vessels, vestments and paintings kept by Haarlem Catholics through the centuries when their worship was tolerated but not public, which is the real subject of the museum. Stained glass by several Dutch designers fills the aisles. The crypt below the choir holds the graves of the bishops of Haarlem and is opened on request at the desk.

Cathedral of St Bavo, Haarlem opening hours and the best time to go

The cathedral keeps regular afternoon hours and shorter ones out of season, and closes around services. Daylight matters here more than in a Gothic church, because the decoration depends on colour rather than height, so a bright day is worth waiting for. The tower closes in wind. Haarlem's market on the main square runs on Saturdays and is the best day to combine the two churches with the Frans Hals museum.

Spring brings the bulb fields to the country immediately west of the city, and the flower parade in April passes through Haarlem itself, filling the streets. Concerts in the cathedral are listed on the parish site and often free with a collection. The beach at Zandvoort is twenty minutes further by train. Allow forty-five minutes for the church and museum, plus the climb, and leave the centre for afterwards. A cafe operates in the north aisle on most afternoons, which is unusual in a Dutch cathedral and makes the building easy to linger in.