"Saint Andrew" a Antwerp Travel Page by irisbe

Send Photo to a Friend

historical backgrounds

I will citate the text you can find on the pamphlet you can buy at the church.
Donations to maintain the property are always welcome.
It doesn't cost much and it will help you to find your way around and gives you a nice inventarisation of all the art pieces inside.
I hope I am forgiven by the authors to use their text, but I am using it just to convince you, the reader, to make sure you hop in some day on your visit to Antwerp.

Send Photo to a Friend

Seven years later: the iconoclasm broke out. Neither statuary nor organ were spared; silver, money and robes were stolen.
Although the church was reconsecrated in 1567, the following year the nave, right up to the choir, had to be surrendered to the reformist movement.
In 1579 a dividing wall was erected in the middle of the church, after which the transept and choir were destroyed.

Send Photo to a Friend

In 1585 the church was once again reconsecrated and
in 1608 was completely reconstructed.
After Peter Paul Rubens married Isabella Brant in October 1609, he came to live for some time in the parish of St. Andries.
His two oldest children were baptised in the church:
Clara in 1611 and Albert in 1614.

Send Photo to a Friend

Since then the church has been continuously embellished and adapted.
The beautiful monument to the memory of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was unveiled in 1620.
This work of art was made possible by the generosity of two of Mary Stuart's ladies-in-waiting: Barbara Maubray and Elisabeth Curle, who emigrated to Belgium after the death of the queen and lived in the parish of St. Andries.
The work was executed by two famous sculptors, Robrecht and Jan de Nole.
The statue of St. Peter by Artus Quellin I was part of the funerary monument of Peter Saboth, erected in 1658.

Send Photo to a Friend

In 1664, the Altar of the Holy Cross by Cornelis Van Mildert and the new cross-nave were finished.
By 1674, the altar of St. Anna sculpted by Jan van de Cruyce was completed and
in 1683 the consecration of the new Our Lady Chapel took place.
In 1685 the cross-vault over the transept was in place.

Send Photo to a Friend

Reinforcement work was being carried out on the foundations of the church when, at 10:30 pm, on the night of 30th May 1755, the tower, already in a state of dilapidation, collapsed together with the last three bays in the south aisle.
After the Magistrate was successfully petitioned in 1756, the rebuilding of the tower was accomplished in 1763.
The authorities were petitioned in the following year to allow the building of a new choir and, four years later, the vaulting was completed.

Send Photo to a Friend

During the French occupation, the church was closed on the orders of the Municipal Commision in 1797, having been systematically plundered since 1794.
It was taken back into use on 7th of August 1802, after the Concordat of 15th July 1801.
Restoration work started immediately and several works of art were recovered: Quellin's white marble statue of St. Peter and many paintings.

Send Photo to a Friend

In 1805, the church wardens purchased the monumental High Altar for 200 golden Louis.
Originally, it altar came form the St Bernard Abbey in Hemiksem (near Antwerp) and was first bought by Georgius Pallandi from Aachen, during an auction on recovered loot.
In 1803, it was sold to the French Genreal, Lapaliere, before finding its final resting place in the St Andries Church.
The re-erection of this beautiful Altar by Peter Verbruggen the Older, was finished in 1809.
The new marble floor of the choir was laid in 1818 and the pulpit, a masterpiece by J.B. Van Hool and J.F. Van Geel was made in 1821.

The parish of St Andries was badly damaged during the bombardments of Antwerp by General Chasse on 27 November 1830.
A missile crashed through the church tower and set fire to a beam which was hurriedly extinguished.
Between 1830 and 1832, King Leopold I climbed to the top of the St Andries steeple eight times, in order to observe the activities of the Dutch, busy in their fort.
The damage to the tower, incurred during the war, was repaired in 1842 and a new floor laid in the church.

Between 1845 and 1858, the windows were replaced by stained-glass windows wit hstone tracery and later the new transept was santified.
This housed fourteen paintings by prominent artists, mostly of the Van Bree School.

By 1937, the church tower was, once again, in a sorry state and a restoration project proposed but, due to the intervention of the Second World War, could not be carried out.
In 1944/1945 the explosion of V bombs in the immediate vicinity of St. Andries, meant that the entire church fabric was badly damaged, destroying all the stained-glass windows in the North wall.
After the war, the necessary repairs were re-started and in 1963, the last of the stained-glass windows, designed and made by Jan Huet, a glass painter, were inserted.

Send Photo to a Friend

Like the four other great historical churches in Antwerp, Sint Andrieskerk has had a very eventful history.
In 1513, a group of Augustinian monks of the Saxon congregation came from their abbey in Enkhuizen to Antwerp, in order to establish a new convent.

Meanwhile, the church tower, now in ruins, had to be pulled down and in 1968 the reconstruction started.
The complete restortaion of St. Andries Church was carried out between 1970 and 1975.

Send Photo to a Friend

They acquired a house and some land behind the Munt (The Mint - square) between the Ridderstraat and the Boeksteeg, This last one is now known as the Nationalestraat.
There they set up a chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

Send Photo to a Friend

However, the Chapter of Our Lady denied the Augustinians both the right to own a chapel or to build a convent, even threatening to pull down any such building!
The whole affair was put before the Coundil of Brabant and, in 1514, that same council gave permission to the Augustinians to build both convent and chapel on their own lands.

Send Photo to a Friend

The chapter did not give in immediatly and it was only after the executory confirmatino of the Council of Brabant's resolution by Pope Leo X on the 12th September 1514, that the Augustinians were allowed to proceed with their work.
By this time, the planned chapel was already too small for their purposes and a larger, new church was started which eventually became the St Andries Church of today, though, as you will read on, beset by problems for centuries to come.

Send Photo to a Friend

The second prior of the convent, Brother Jacob Probst from Ypres, also known as Jaco Praepositus, had studied at the High School of Wittenburg and was a friend and follower of Luther.
His successor, Hendrik van Zutphen, also studied in Wittenberg and as a result of their teachings in the Lutheran style, the Council of Brabant closed down the convent.

Send Photo to a Friend

In 1523, the Holy Sacrament was moved from St Andries to Our Lady's Church and, following this, the altars were broken down, tower bells removed, doors and windows closed off, the church itself enclosed by a wall. The contents of the convent were put up for public auction.
However the Magistrate and Governess Margaret of Austria wanted to retain the building in order to turn it into a parish church, to which Pope Adrian VI agreed in 1523.

Send Photo to a Friend

Thus, six years later, the Church, Alta and Cemetery were all consecrated on the same day, 6th June 1529.
In order to honour the protector Margaret, the patron saint of the Burgundian House, St Andries, was made the patron saint of this parish.

... and still the building went on.

Send Photo to a Friend

In 1532 a parish school was established with Claudius Luython of Valenciennes the first teacher.
In 1541 the wooden frame of the tower was completed, the church then consisting of the nave and aisles.
In 1557 Charles V allowed a lottery to be held to finance the continuation of the works.
In 1557 Philip II attended a mass in the church and
in 1559 the dome of the tower was finished and crowned with a copper-gilt statue of St. Andries.