The Grote Kerk, or Sint-Jacobskerk, stands on Torenstraat in The Hague and is named for its high tower. It is a Reformed Protestant church, owned by the city and managed by a foundation. It was founded in the late thirteenth century, probably as a wooden church. Excavations in 2009 dated brick basement walls to 1320 to 1350, and documents confirm a brick structure by 1399. The six-sided tower was completed from 1420 to 1424, and it is 93 meters tall. The lower aisles were broadened and raised from 1434 to 1455.
It was originally cruciform and became the first Hague Hall church in the Low Countries. A fire damaged it in 1539, and Charles V sponsored two surviving windows by the Crabeth brothers.
Inside are 34 escutcheons of knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece and a carillon of 1689. Members of the House of Orange-Nassau have been baptized and married here.
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