Jan Stuyt

Dutch architect

Jan Stuyt (21 August 1868, Purmerend 11 July 1934, The Hague) was a Dutch architect.

Stuyt was born the son of a cattle farmer. Due to the headmaster of his school, he was employed in 1883 at the office of Adrianus Bleijs (1842 1912), whose neo Romanesque style would strongly influence Stuyt's work.

In 1891 Stuyt joined the Cuypers office in Amsterdam, where he became an overseer of the building of the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Haarlem between 1895 and 1898. He then had a short career as an independent architect, during which he built his first church. In 1899 Stuyt formed a partnership with Joseph Cuypers, son of Pierre Cuypers, which lasted until 1909. It seems that the architects in this period mostly worked on their own. Jan Stuyt mostly designed neo Romanesque churches, often decorated with chessboard like tile decorations, which are present in many of the churches both during and after the partnership. Cuypers chose a more neo Gothic approach, closely related to the work of his father. Stuyt's style was greatly influenced by Mediterranean (Italian, Byzantine, Islamic) architecture after his participation in the first Dutch pilgrimage to Palestine in 1903. Several of his most important churches were dome churches, shaped after the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. His less prestigious designs were often executed in a simple neo Romanesque style, combining standard elements. Besides churches Stuyt designed various other buildings and was also active in town planning, especially in the city of Heerlen. He was an architect for housing corporation Ons Limburg and in that function designed the Molenberg neighbourhood. In his profane designs influences from (neo )Classicism and the work of K. P. C. de Bazel are apparent.

After Stuyt's death, his son Giacomo C. Stuyt continued the office for several years, apparently with considerably less success, before becoming a diplomat. His first and best known work is the church of St. Paulus in Utrecht of 1937, which has been demolished already. Another son of Jan Stuyt, Louis Stuyt became physician and Dutch Minister of Health and Environment.