Basilica of Saints Agatha and Barbara

The fact that there is a copy of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome here is due to Father Willem Hellemons. He ordered the construction of the church, replacing the Gothic church of Oudenbosch. Hellemons had studied in Rome and had been impressed by ecclesiastical architecture. Although the pastor had an aversion to Gothic and Neo-Gothic, it was P.J.H. Cuypers, pre-eminently the Dutch architect of the Neo-Gothic, who was commissioned to design the new church. Cuypers went to Rome to study St. Peter's Church. He took over the dome from St. Peter's Church, but the nave and the façade that were added later are those of St. John Lateran.

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