The "Waalse" Church.

The Waalse church.
The Waalse church is a Calvinistic church in the Netherlands. The history of the church is hundreds of years back. The origin of the church lays in the southern parts of the Low Countries, Belgium and France. The members of the church use as main language French and also the church services are in French. But why did the church also occurs in Zwolle, a place in the northern part of the Netherlands? That is what this article is about. We are going to tell you what is happened, why it happened and what you can still see today.

What happened?
Around 1566 a war began, called the Eighty years' war. This war is also called the Dutch war of independence. This war was about that the 17 provinces of the Low Countries wanted to break with the Philip II of Spain, the leader of the Low Countries. Philip II send armies to the provinces, which were revolting.

Why did it happen?
French Protestants came to the Netherlands because they weren't welcome in France anymore.
Because many people were scared they escaped to the Netherlands, which of course was also a part of the Low Countries, but was more to the North. Many groups of people escaped, also the Walen. The Walen lived first in southern parts of the Low Countries. The escaped with many, there were so many people that they made own settlements, so also build their own churches. This also happened in Zwolle, the Walen built their own Waalse church in Zwolle.

What you can still see today.
Today you can still see the building itself, and it still is used as an actual church, of course are all the church services still in French.
The church has a service every two weeks.
If you are interested in visiting the church, it is located on: Schoutenstraat 4 in Zwolle.