M
useum Speelklok will be the venue of the Conference Dinner on Wednesday evening 12 July 2017. This museum was initiated in the 1950s by a group of hurdy-gurdy-enthusiasts, who sought to collect and restore ancient hurdy-gurdies, music boxes, and other mechanical music instruments. After two years of lobbying, the first exhibition in August 1956 turned out to be a huge success, convincing the authorities to offer the finances to establish a permanent museum, which was opened in a wing of the Saint-Catherine convent in Utrecht in 1958. As the collection expanded, room at the convent became too scarce, causing the museum in 1971 to move to the former post office (Achter den Dom 12); in 1984, the ever expanding collection needed to be relocated again, now to its current location.
Museum Speelklok is now located in the early-medieval Buurkerk. The history of the Buurkerk dates back until the 9th century; due to city fires previous churches on this location were destroyed several times and the bell tower, dating from 1340 now forms the most ancient preserved part of the church. The Buurkerk is the oldest and became also the most important of the Utrecht parish churches: in 1569, just before the Reformation, about 8,000 of Utrecht’s 30,000 inhabitants belonged to the parish of the Buurkerk. The Buurkerk was altered several times in the course of the centuries. Shortly after the Reformation, the choir of the church was torn down, as this part of the church was right in the way of the regular route to the cattle market, as is also shown by an ancient placard stating the fines for driving cattle through the church during church services. During the Beeldenstormen (Iconoclastic Furies) of 1566 and 1579, the interior of the church was heavily damaged; shortly after these furies, the church was handed over to the Protestants. In 1674, the tornado that struck the Church of Saint-John-Baptist and the Dom Church also tore down the medieval roof of the nave of the Buurkerk. During the French occupation of the Netherlands in 1795, the church was used as a stable and for hay storage. In 1975, the Buurkerk was put out of ecclesiastical use due to an ever decreasing number of church members.
