By
The Associated Press
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A royal advisory body has approved the demolition of one of the last vestiges of the Pilgrims' stay in the Netherlands before sailing to the New World.
The Council of State, chaired by Queen Beatrix, said Wednesday it has rejected an appeal of the plan to bulldoze a remnant of the 14th-century church where the Pilgrims once prayed.
The mossy brick wall of the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, or Church of Our Dear Lady, will come down to make way for a shopping mall in the center of Leiden, 30 miles southwest of Amsterdam.
The Pilgrims lived in Holland after fleeing religious persecution in England and sailed to America beginning in 1620. Records show ancestors of President Bush were married in the church.
The council determined that Leiden city officials acted fairly when they issued a permit to demolish the wall. The appellants, including the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, claimed the city council withheld information on the project and sought to prevent public protests.
Council decisions are not binding, but they are rarely ignored in a country governed by consensus.
Leiden Alderman Alexander Pechtold welcomed what he called the end of seven years of legal battles. He said the demolition will go ahead, but that no date has been set.
Jeremy Bangs, the Pilgrim museum's American director, said the demolition was not a foregone conclusion. But he was pessimistic about the efforts to stop it.
"I'm going out to get a roll of film so I'll be there when they demolish it," said Bangs.
The development program, approved last summer, also calls for the destruction of a former hospital hall where Myles Standish was treated when he was injured while serving in the Dutch army.
Bangs says the church wall and the hospital site are the only buildings remaining from the Pilgrims' stay. Pechtold, however, said that Pilgrims also prayed at another church that still stands, and that at least one home where a Pilgrim lived remains intact.
He contended that the wall is "only a very very small part" of the Pilgrims' heritage in Leiden.
"They lived for 12 years in our city so every house, every street, is a reminder of the Pilgrims," Pechtold said.
Bangs said he would continue campaigning against the demolition. He hopes Bush will take an interest in the monument.
"It's the only building in this country which has a direct connection to the president of the United States," he said.
