St. Joseph's Church, Semarang, Catholic church building in Semarang, Indonesia.
St. Joseph's Church is a red-brick neo-Gothic church in Semarang, designed by W. I. van Bakel. Its single tower houses two bells, and the interior holds nineteen stained glass windows, fourteen carved Stations of the Cross, and a Gothic altar made in Düsseldorf. The church stands within a complex that also includes a presbytery and a convent.
The first stone was laid on 1 October 1870 by pastor Joseph Lijnen, and construction ran until 12 May 1873, when the nearly finished tower collapsed, blamed on a weak frame and poor bricks. The design was then lowered and rebuilt with bricks shipped from the Netherlands as ballast. The church was completed on 12 December 1875 and blessed by Lijnen.
The church is also called Gedangan, after the district near the harbour where Catholics bought a former hospital and land in 1828 and ran an orphanage. Franciscan nuns arrived through Mgr. Joseph Lijnen and opened an elementary school across the street in 1888; a convent chapel followed on 6 August 1892.
The building is accessible to visitors and offers a quiet environment for exploration. Regular services are held here, so visitors should be mindful of service times and dress respectfully when visiting.
The single tower holds two bells cast by Petit & Fritsen of Aarle-Rixtel, the Netherlands, not Rotterdam. The tower also carried a clock, removed in 1978 after its mechanism broke. The tower itself had collapsed on 12 May 1873, before completion, and was rebuilt lower with bricks shipped from the Netherlands as ballast.
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