A barn church or barn chapel is a specific type of clandestine church, built in times that a certain church was illegal but tolerated as long as the churches were not specifically looking like churches.[1][2] These were no elaborate buildings but simple structures without pews. They were design to hold rather large kneeling and standing congregations.[3][4]
In rural areas those clandestine churches usually mimicked a barn, hence the name. In towns and cities people were more creative, hiding churches in houses and warehouses.
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Former barn church in Kilnaboy, County Clare, Ireland -
Example of a former Barn church in The Netherlands
- ^ "Schuurkerk". Canon van Nederland.
- ^ "Unieke schuurkerk te koop | Nederlands Dagblad". www.nd.nl.
- ^ Whelan, Kevin (2018). Religion, Landscape and Settlement in Ireland; From Patrick to Present. Dublin: Four Courts Press. pp. 185–186. ISBN 978-1-84682-756-3.
- ^ Murphy, Ignatius (1991). The Diocese of Killaloe in the Eighteenth Century. Dublin: Four Courts Press. p. 247. ISBN 1-85182-083-3.