DISCOVERY news:

Dutch Demolish Pilgrim Monuments
The last vestiges of the Pilgrims' decade-long stay in the Netherlands face
destruction to make room for a discotheque, shopping mall and parking garage.

The moss-adorned brick wall in the historic center of this Dutch town is all
that remains of the Church of Our Lady, where the Pilgrims worshipped before
they sailed to the Americas in 1620.

But if Leiden's City Fathers have their way, there will be nothing left to
mark the Pilgrims' sojourn here, where they thrived in an atmosphere of
religious tolerance after fleeing England.

The church wall and the nearby site of a hospital where Pilgrim leader Myles
Standish recuperated from injuries he suffered while serving in the Dutch
army are the only structures remaining from the Pilgrims' stay, according to
Jeremy
Bangs, a U.S. expert on the Pilgrims.

The last Pilgrim house in the city, William Bradford's, was torn down in 1985
to make way for a housing project.
Now, the two remaining Pilgrim monuments and 20 other medieval and
17th-century landmarks may share a similar fate to make room for a major
urban redevelopment project proposed by the City Council.

"Once those building are gone, they're gone," said Bangs, former curator of
Plimoth Plantation, a museum of Pilgrim history in Plymouth, Mass. Bangs now
lives in Leiden.

Jan Vellekoop, head of the Monument Preservation Commission, defended the
project, saying some of Leiden's 1,300 historic sites have to be sacrificed
so the city can modernize.

"The city is a living organism and you can't stop time and keep everything in
the 17th century because it was a nice time," Vellekoop said. ''This is the
20th century, and there are new demands on the city to change and grow."

Bangs accused the City Council of withholding information on the project and
scheduling impromptu meetings on the issue to prevent protests.

The city officials responsible for the project, Tjeerd van Rij and Alexander
Pechtold, declined a request for comment on the issue.

Jaap Moggre, chairman of the neighborhood association nearest the church
square, said the city has refused to hear his group's objections, citing city
ordinances that allow only residents whose homes directly overlook the plaza
to file protests.

"I pass by the church square almost every day, and it will be a great loss to
the neighborhood if it's destroyed," said Moggre. "It's really a beautiful
place."

Associated Press, Copyright 1999
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