Beeldenstorm in Dutch (roughly "image storm" or "statue storm"), and
Bildersturm in German ("image/statue storm") are terms used for outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th century, known in English as the
Great Iconoclasm or
Iconoclastic Fury. During these spates of
iconoclasm, Catholic art and many forms of church fittings and decoration were destroyed in unofficial or mob actions by
Calvinist Protestant crowds as part of the
Protestant Reformation.
[2][3] Most of the destruction was of art in churches and public places.
[4]
The Dutch term usually specifically refers to the wave of disorderly attacks in the summer of 1566 that spread rapidly through the
Low Countries from south to north. Similar outbreaks of iconoclasm took place in other parts of Europe, especially
in Switzerland and the
Holy Roman Empire in the period between 1522 and 1566, notably
Zürich (in 1523),
Copenhagen (1530),
Münster (1534),
Geneva (1535), and
Augsburg (1537).
[5]