Teresa of Ávila parish church, by T.F. Suys in the Hague

I am a huge sucker for (European) churches.  Even though I am not incredibly religious, I just love them. They usually show impressive craftsmanship - as an engineer I can really appreciate that - and I love the (sometimes overwhelming) feeling of grandeur and splendour these buildings so often cause.

I unknowingly walked passed this church many times, as you can't see it from the street.

But when you walk through the 17th century gate of this 'Spanish court' (it used to be a town palace which the Spaniards took over at some point), you can see this pretty thing tucked away.

This, is the Roman-Catholic Teresa of Ávila church (Dutch: Teresia van Avilakerk). I am most definitely not familiar with catholic icons, but Saint Teresa apparently was a Spanish nun in the 16th Century and I've been told she has become one of the most important holy icons in the catholic church. 

Anyway. There were 3 churches build in The Hague with the financial help of the ministry of roads and waterways, and this church is the only one to survive. The current building was completed in 1841, and although this church was intended to cater only to the Spanish residents of the Spanish embassy located there, the Hague catholics were also allowerd to attend mass freely here. Now, due to low attendancy, there is no Dutch eucharist anymore, but they do have a Polish eucharist (I guess Polish folk are more religious than us Dutchies nowadays).

Architect Tieleman Fransiscus Suys was responsible for the design. He was a Flemish architect and official architect for the Dutch court. He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1812 and worked on commission for king William I of the Netherlands and king Leopold I of Belgium. Other works include the Moses and Aaron church in Amsterdam, the Royal Palace in Brussels and the gorgeous conservatory at the botanic garden in Brussels. Although he also designed in other architectural styles, I think it's safe to say Suys was a neo-classicist (is that a word?) at heart. The Teresa church shows this well, with its plastered façade and elegant Ionic order.

Although the building may be attributed to neoclassical architecture, the interior is mostly made in baroque style, designed by Belgian artist Charles Geerts.

I love this church because it's so light and cool from the inside and when the sun shines in it's just gorgeous. Also - neoclassical buildings are rare in the Netherlands (so yeah, no wonder this building is in the top 100 of our national heritage list) and I do love (neo)classicism.
Unfortunately this church isn't open to visitors - I'm hoping they will change this in the future. I'm guessing they don't have a lot of funds to keep it open and it's probably pretty expensive to keep up maintenance and stuff.
The Teresa church will be open during Open Monument weekend though on 14 & 15 September 2013. Definitely worth a visit! (I love Open Monument weekend by the way.)
But on other days, just walk by and peek inside the Spanish court, the church is also very pretty from the outside!

Address: Westeinde 12a, The Hague
Open to visitors: Unfortunately not.
How to get there: Take tram 2, 3, 4 or 6 from Central Station and get off at Grote Markt. From Grote Markt it's a 4 minute walk.
Website: (in Dutch) http://www.ignatiusparochie.nl/