In the Dutch year of the religious heritage, a new foundation devoted itself to save churches from demolition. In the upcoming 5 years around 1200 Dutch churches will go out of use because of the secularisation.
Many of these churches have to be demolished to pay for the renovations of other churches or because the diocese does not allow another use of the church. Former churchgoers, local residents and art historians fight for the preservation of the Dutch religious heritage.
Reporter Patrick Hafner from the Austrian public broadcaster ORF travels to the Netherlands for the background reportage program Weltjournal, to interview the founder of the church property agency Reliplan and to have a look at the way the Dutch reuse churches as a supermarket, for apartments as a mosque, a concert hall and for indoor climbing.
For this reportage for Featurez gave advice, did the research, set-up and planning, accompanied the filming, did some of interviews and translations.