The Coal Kit

The St. Joseph Church is a landmark church in the South Holland town of Wateringen, part of the municipality of Westland.

The Joseph Church was built according to a design by ir. Dick van Mourik between 1961 and 1965. P.J.M. Matthijsen was the construction pastor; the church is named after its inspirator, pastor Joseph Schoots. The church, located at the corner of Harry Hoekstraat and Doctor Schaepmanstraat, replaced an earlier wooden emergency church on Willem III-straat as the meeting place for the St. Joseph parish. (This parish, along with ten other Westland parishes, forms the federation St. Francis between dune and garden.) The church is built on a site at the edge of the adjacent Hofpark, where the Cistercian monastery Bethlehem used to stand. The unique shape of the Joseph Church quickly earned it the nicknames the coal shed and the praying (also known as kneeling) nun among the locals. The large light funnel creates a special play of light on the altar inside the church.

The freestanding bell tower, nearly 20 meters high, dates from 1980. The bells were made by Eijsbouts in Asten; the tower itself was built by the firm Boeters from De Lier.

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