The Heidense Kapel of Stroe

The old church of Stroe was dedicated to Willibrord, but on Wieringen it was always called the Heidensche Kapel (Heathen Chapel). According to tradition, a heathen temple stood here first, and the Christians built their church on the same sacred spot. In 1789 Pieter van Cuyck wrote that the chapel was dedicated to Anthony. That would explain the pig above the door.

Allan noted in 1855 that everyone still used the name, although he himself did not believe the story. The church was of tufa. He saw tombstones there, one with an unknown family tree and one with the signs of a bishop, mitre and crozier, but no name. The old name of the village was Stroot or Strude. In the tenth century Strude appears in the Codex Eberhardi of Fulda abbey, with 72 farms, a great many for the time. There was probably already a church in the ninth century.

The sources do not agree on the year of demolition. One gives 1878, Klein-Hamming 1877, Wikipedia the end of the nineteenth century, because it was dilapidated. The churchyard remained and is still used. Volunteers rebuilt the chapel. Klein-Hamming writes 2015. It was opened on 7 November 2016, with the old riddles in it once again.