Regular visitor to Port Alfred, Bruno van der Werff this week handed over a labour of love – a paper model of the Cologne Cathedral – the Kölner Dom – for children and adults visiting the Port Alfred Library to enjoy. Van der Werff lives in Holland and every year, he visits his Kowie based family. He started the model during last year’s visit to the Sunshine Coast and finished it here during this year’s stay.
The Kölner Dom is the largest Gothic church in northern Europe and has 157-metre-high twin towers. Its architecture is complicated and so the paper model was no easy feat.
“The inspiration comes from my father. When I was young he used to build these things in the holidays.
“When he died, I found this building template among his belongings. I found it inspiring to finish it in his memory.”
Had he been inside the actual building?
“I visited the Cathedral years ago,” Van der Werff said. “Köln is a very important and big city in Germany. In the second world war it was almost completely destroyed, but later they rebuilt it completely. It is a very inspiring building that reminds you of a long history.”
He spoke about the challenges he faced while creating the model, particularly when it came to the delicate crosses.
“The folding requires plenty of precision and patience to ensure the model is perfectly presented,” he explained. “I had a minor struggle with the crosses, so I improvised by holding them up with matches. The paper is very thin and flimsy for the crosses, but with my improvisation, everything came together perfectly.”
Van der Werff’s passion for paper modelling is a hobby he shared with his late father, and he has been perfecting his craft for years. However, this particular model holds a special place in his heart, as it is the largest paper model he has ever created.
The idea to donate the model to the local library came about when Van der Werff visited the library last week, where he discovered a small collection of paper models of various cathedrals from around the world. He felt that his model would fit perfectly with the library’s collection.
Van der Werff says he is already working on another model “At the moment I am building the German cloister of Maria Laach. A beautiful old cloister. Luckily it is much smaller than Koln!”
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, March 13, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
