Heathen Symbols in Breda

The city of Breda, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, has a very rich history. During a visit I couldn’t resist to hunt for symbols in one of the oldest churches there. The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk was built around 1410, probably on a (heathen) sacred site dedicated to the “Allmutter”. Although the church doesn’t have too much symbols, I found some surprises.

All pictures by J. De Cooman. You can reuse the pictures freely. Drop me a small note when you publish them.

Sun and moon on the ceiling. 27 other plant-like figure are depicted too (length of the moon-month). Looks like the (partly lost) depiction of a calendar.

Runic signature (Hausmarke).

Wheel with 5 spokes on a grave.

Tree of life and heraldic, runic shield. Bees (souls) and 3 times gebo-rune.

The shield of family Falkenstein has 2 wheels with 6 spokes.

Horned, satyr-like figure on the ceiling. The penis has not been covered!

Saint (?) with harp with face.