Heritage brochure - Church of Our Lady of the Chapel

EN

the ĂŠglise notre-dame de la chapelle (church of our lady of the chapel),

one of the three gothic churches in central brussels

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rigin and development

The historical context should not be forgotten, as this was the first ecclesiastical building in the district in the 13th century; churches such as the ones in Minimes and Sablon did not yet exist.

The church is on Rue Haute, the main mediaeval transportation route into Brussels from the South. When the second city walls were built, a gate, the Porte de Hal, was added to this road to provide access to the city; this gate is still in existence.

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ours and detours

It is difficult to miss this majestic building and the square around it, located between the Marolles and Sablon districts and acting as a kind of transition point between these two worlds.

Notre-Dame de la Chapelle - usually called «La Chapelle» by locals - is one of the churches in central Brussels to currently have a special status and vocation; it is not, therefore, part of the traditional ecclesiastic structure of Brussels and is run, at pastoral level, by the Polish Catholic mission.

Even its antinomian name evokes its history, though its origins are relatively normal for a church. Traditionally, a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary preceded the ecclesiastical building since at least the 12th century.

This chapel, founded by Duke Godfrey I, who controlled our regions, stood in a domain that he ceded to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Sapulcre in Cambrai, seat of the bishopric of which Brussels was part at the time.

The Abbey placed a provost at its head. The area around the building soon became a booming neighbourhood of workers and artisans (fullers, textile workers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, tanners, upholsterers, painters, etc. Note the many streets named after these jobs), who made up the majority of the people who went to this chapel. Elevated to the rank of parish headquarters in 1210, the building and its area of influence began to compete with the Brussels mother church of St. Michael and St. Gudula, the only church overseeing the single Brussels parish at the time. Development work to replace the chapel with the church lasted for much of the 13th century - from approximately 1210 to 1275. Nothing now remains of the early chapel, which was probably located under the church choir.

The 13th century also saw the construction of the first city walls around Brussels, leaving the church outside the fortifications, almost opposite the Steenpoort, one of the wall’s seven gates. This wall then acted as a barrier and a control for any disruption of public order caused by the communities of workers that lived in the Chapelle neighbourhood.

Duke Godfrey’s intention in encouraging the creation of abbeys and religious institutions was first and foremost to increase economic activity as his main aim was to manage this territory by bringing in revenue. He also wanted to create a centre of power, marking out the territory and bringing its residents together. As well as evangelisation, we must not forget how important it was for people at that time to have a religious institution - a concept that can sometimes seem strange to us. Religion played a significant role in the Middle Ages and power often lay in the hands of the clerics. The church and its district were included within the second protective walls when these were built around the city in the 14th century. Although this second wall extended the urbanised area, it also seemed that the area between the first and second walls had to act as a buffer zone; it isolated the real centre of power a bit more, whether against an outside invader or in anticipation of an internal uprising from the least affluent sections of the population.

The current Place de la Chapelle was once the site of the church cemetery, but was turned into a public square in the early 19th century.

The church and the district were devastated by a fire in 1405. A large part of the church was consumed by the flames, as were many houses in the parish. The damage forced the construction of a new nave. As well as listing the affected buildings, old accounts also mention, symbolically, the large number of looms that went up in flames.

From 13 to 15 August 1695, Brussels paid the price for European opposition to the hegemonic policy of Louis XIV, when the church was partially damaged by the bombardment of the city by French troops. Stray ammunition damaged the upper parts of the building, particularly the tower on top of the transept, which was replaced by the current belfry. This section was built per plans by Pastorana, known for his major role in the restoration of the Grand-Place after the same event. On this occasion, two major works by the great painter Rubens were sold to pay for the restoration costs.

The district’s current name is more recent than the church. The name «Marolles» is said to come from «Mariam Colentes», a community of nuns (literally, who «honour Mary») that set up in the district in the 17th century; the two words contracted to form «Maricoles» and later «Marolles».

The Église de la Chapelle played a part in the life of the famous painter Pieter Bruegel, known as the Elder (to distinguish him from his son). It was in Église de la Chapelle that he married Mayken Coecke, daughter of his master Pierre Coecke, and also there that he was buried in 1569. The headstone in his memory can be seen in one of the side chapels, on the right side of the church facing the choir. His life in Brussels was very short (1563 to 1569) but so intense that he left his mark here, particularly in the Chapelle and Marolles districts.

It is also important to mention the building traditionally called the «Maison Bruegel», on Rue Haute, even though it seems not to have belonged to Bruegel but to his great-grandson, painter David Teniers III. Bruegel is thought to have lived in the lower part of the city, perhaps towards the Bogards district. Place de la Chapelle is home to a statue of Bruegel at work, created by the Brussels sculptor Tom Frantzen.

The remains of François Anneessens were also laid to rest in Église de la Chapelle, probably somewhere between the choir and the Chapelle du Saint-Sacrement. Anneessens was a chair manufacturer, then later head of the «Quatre-Couronnés» corporation, a professional guild of sculptors, carvers, stonemasons, slate-workers and chair manufacturers. This Brussels resident remains famous for his active opposition to the tax policy introduced by the Austrian regime that governed our regions in the 18th century. This disobedience led to him being imprisoned, in what was then called the «Anneessens Tower», the corner tower of the first city wall located on the site of the current Boulevard de l’Empereur. He was later then executed on the Grand-Place.

A commemorative plaque placed on a pillar in the Chapelle du Saint-Sacrement has commemorated the event since 1834, though with a few inaccuracies.

On the other side of the same pillar, it is still possible to see the back and white marble cenotaph that commemorates Charles Alexandre, Duke of Croy and a confidant of Archduke Albert and his wife Isabella, governors of our regions in the early 16th century and crown prince of the German Empire.

The Duke of Croy was assassinated in Brussels in 1624 by his page, who fled to Italy. An innocent man was arrested, tortured and imprisoned in his place. The culprit confessed to his crime thirty years later, on his deathbed; the innocent man did not know what to do with his freedom and so received a small pension and a menial job at the prison.

Following the French occupation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the church was in a state of major disrepair due to pillaging and vandalism as well as the negligence that resulted from secularisation.

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rchitecture and decor

Most the church you can see is Gothic in style, although some parts are in the older Roman style. It is traditionally listed alongside the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula and the Église Notre-Dame du Sablon (Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon Church) as one of the three Gothic churches still standing in Brussels. Major restoration work in the 19th century under the management of city architect, Victor Jamaer, significantly changed the church’s appearance. Further renovations were carried out in the 20th century to protect the building against humidity, improve its stability, etc. The interior of the building is adorned with numerous artworks, most of them Baroque in style (dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries). This can easily be explained by the many artists (painters, textile workers, upholsterers, etc.) living close to the church. The church was listed as a protected building in 1932.

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