The Dutch Reformed church of Britsum is situated at the highest point of the characteristic Frisian terp village Britsum, some 12 kilometres to the north of Leeuwarden. The village of Britsum occurs early on in history as ‘Bruggenheim’ in the property registers of the abbey of Fulda. As the source material of the church is scarce, we will have to rely on research of the building itself tor the reconstruction of its building history. The church is of the hall-church type, as customary for Frisian village churches, with as special element the reduced western block, consisting of a tower with flanking adjacent spaces provided with a floor. Research proved that this western block is among the early examples of brick architecture, with a Romanesque detail probably dating from the period l180-1190. The ribless dome vaults of the ground floor were built somewhat later, in the 13th century. Originally. the western block was not vaulted. The greater part of the superstructure of the tower was renovated in the 17th and 18th centuries. Traces of older roof connections at the eastern side of the tower indicate that the present nave was preceded by an older (possibly tuff) hall-nave. The present hall-nave, also completely built of brick, with a choir with slightly recessed semicircular apse, is vaulted with early Romanesque-Gothic domes with sturdy round ribs. In each dome the ribs form a mutually divergent pattern. The course of the ribs and the star patterns and circles in the cresting of the vaults are still somewhat clumsily executed, which indicates an early date. Consequently, the type of vault, the construction and the rib patterns show similarities with the vaults of chiefly 13th century churches in e.g. Groningen and German East Friesland. Because of the construction of this vaulted nave the original circular-arched openings in the eastern front of the western block had to be closed. Nave and western block clearly do not belong together. In the northern wall of the nave and the chevet the remainder of the original, ...