I’ve had several encounters with St. Bavo Kerk, a beautiful late Gothic cathedral located right in the centre of Haarlem in The Netherlands. Like many churches in Europe, St Bavo was built on the site of an older church that existed from the 12th century, however it was only in the 15th century that it was altered and expanded into a large cathedral. St Bavo started off a Catholic church but bore witness to the wave of Protestantism, finally becoming a Protestant cathedral in 1578.

Magnificent in size, with an impressive wooden ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows, St Bavo is designed (like all Gothic churches) to awe the visitor. Its Pièce de résistance, however, is its pipe organ, for a long time the largest in the world and once even played on by Mozart in 1766, when he was all of ten years old!

I remember walking to St Bavo way back in 1999, accompanied by my younger mama (maternal uncle) to hear an organ concert. Having recently finished by Bachelors in Architecture, I recall I spent most of my time staring at the church interiors and also at times dozing off (put it down to a limited understanding of Western music and a full stomach!).

This visit though, the rich sound of the organ struck me as soon as I set foot inside the cathedral and I found I could appreciate much better the texture of the sound, the acoustics of the absolutely stunning space and the atmosphere of divinity that the combination of space and sound created.

For the children, who had never been to a cathedral before, it was hard to decide where to look: the paved floors that marked the graves of important people, the paintings on the walls, the ceiling so so high, the shining organ, the hushed demeanour of those who sat in the pews hearing the music and seemingly engrossed in prayer, the statue of Mother Mary with her benevolent expression…..

After having spent a couple of hours out there in the Grote Markt thinking the cathedral was closed, I was just happy to be inside. For, call me old-fashioned or slightly crazy, it seems incomplete to visit Haarlem and not come here once!

St Bavo from outside. At this time, we were out in the square lamenting its closure

When we finally discover this little side entrance, I was thrilled. These three are probably at this point, just playing along with my need to see St Bavo again!

The enormous pipe organ that takes up nearly the entire height of the cathedral, definitely the focus here at St Bavo

It was playing the day we visited and here you get an idea of the sort of atmosphere inside

The intricacy of the ceiling, so Gothic!

The nave is in the centre, with the fabulous ceiling and the two aisles, like this one, run on either side of the cathedral. The symmetry is pleasing and inspiring. Notice the flooring. Each flagstone is the size of a grave, for easy sponsorship I suppose!

Trying to fit the many elements of Gothic architecture into a single frame, and the painted ceiling as well