Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire Church of Wierde: A Romanesque Parish Church in Belgium
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Belgium
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Belgian, Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page13 sections
History
Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire Church of Wierde is a Catholic parish church in Wierde, within the city of Namur, Belgium. Built by the medieval Christian community of the region in the first half or around the middle of the twelfth century, it has a predominantly Romanesque character and belongs to the Diocese of Namur. Its bell tower incorporates an eleventh-century fortified keep, linking the church to the earlier seigneurial stronghold of the local Wierde noble family.
The keep and the medieval church
The site first contained an isolated seigneurial keep dating from the eleventh century. Owned by the Wierde family, the tower served as a defensive refuge for the nobles and for people from the surrounding population when danger threatened. A modest wooden church, probably formed by a single nave, was later built against it. During the first half or around the middle of the twelfth century, this structure was replaced by the present stone church, while the former keep was adapted for use as the bell tower.
The church’s ecclesiastical administration was linked to institutions in Liège and to Geronsart Abbey. In 1194, the cathedral chapter of Liège approved the donation of the patronage of Wierde church, its high altar, and its altar of Saint Nicholas to the Premonstratensian canons of Geronsart Abbey. The Premonstratensians were a Catholic order of regular canons founded in the twelfth century. The donors were Renier and Mainier of Wierde, canons of Saint Lambert of Liège, together with their brothers Philippe, Godefroid, and Jacques of Wierde. In 1215, the bishop of Liège confirmed the donation made by Philippe of Wierde and his co-heirs.
Early modern changes and the fire of 1763
Around 1707, the church was dedicated to Notre-Dame du Rosaire, or Our Lady of the Rosary, a devotional title of the Virgin Mary associated with the Rosary, a Catholic form of prayer. The building continued as the place of worship for the local Catholic community. Its tower was restored in 1716 and received the slate spire that crowns it today.
Fire devastated the church in 1763. The rebuilding and refitting that followed included the flat stucco ceiling of the nave and the Baroque organ at the rear of the church. The ceiling retains the date “Anno 1763,” while the organ remains an important surviving element of the post-fire interior.
Nineteenth-century alterations
In 1837, the southern semicircular apsidiole, a small rounded apse, was converted into a square sacristy. Further changes took place in 1865, when the arched openings in the square chancel and aisles, as well as the doorway in the southern aisle, were introduced or altered. The southern doorway occupies the position of an earlier porch.
Restoration and protection
Architects Bastin and Genot directed a restoration in 1975, assisted by the sculptor Jean Willame. The work introduced a new high altar, Stations of the Cross, baptismal font, and entrance-door lintel. In 1990, the stained-glass artist Louis-Marie Londot created new windows for the church. The building has been protected as a classified historic monument since 4 April 1939, and its 1763 Baroque organ has held separate protection since 1996.
Remains
Layout and medieval fabric
The church combines a western square bell tower with a stone nave and two aisles. Six bays divide the body of the building, and the central nave terminates in a square, flat-ended chancel. The interior is paved in black and painted white. Strong square piers with unpainted stone imposts separate the nave from the aisles, while a large triumphal arch leads into the chancel. A triumphal arch is the opening that separates a church nave from its chancel or sanctuary.
The fortified bell tower
The bell tower is the former eleventh-century keep, built from sandstone rubble. It rises approximately 20 metres and measures about 9.5 metres on each side, with walls around 2 metres thick. The tower was originally enclosed and was entered through a raised doorway on the first floor of its southern face. A removable ladder provided access. The opening was later converted into a loophole, a narrow opening used by defenders to observe or use weapons. The tower originally ended in a wooden fighting platform rather than a bell tower.
A southern doorway with a blue-stone surround and lintel opens into a square tower room with a large fireplace. This room served as a school in the eighteenth century. Above the doorway are an arched opening and the former raised entrance, now functioning as a loophole. The tower has loopholes on three sides. The south face has two when the former entrance is included, the west face has three, and the north face has four, all of which are now blocked. The upper level contains an arched bell opening with sound-louvres on each face, except on the west, where two earlier loopholes occupy the corresponding position. An octagonal, three-tiered slate spire crowns the tower.
The nave, aisles, and chancel
The square chancel has a flat eastern end and lateral windows with stone surrounds resembling those of the aisle windows. Its groin vault is formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults. Three plain sides are pierced by tall arched windows with broad splays and brightly coloured geometric stained glass. The axial window was reopened during the 1975 restoration.
The left aisle ends in a semicircular apsidiole with a Lombard Romanesque design. Its exterior is decorated with Lombard bands that terminate in a series of arched arcades. The right aisle ends in the square sacristy created in 1837. Traces of the removed southern apsidiole remain above the sacristy, where the rounded structure formerly met the chancel.
Each aisle has six arched windows with simple splays and blue-stone surrounds dating from 1865. Six moderately sized, undecorated windows are set high in each side of the nave, above the aisle roofs. Their round arches are made of rubble laid on edge. On the exterior, rubble pilasters divide the southern wall between the windows, while the northern wall has no such pilasters. The northern wall retains the trace of a blocked former doorway, whose surround consists of two jambs and a substantial ochre-coloured pitched lintel. Pink stone blocks appear at several points in the masonry.
Interior spaces and furnishings
The tower schoolroom
The groin-vaulted room at the base of the tower was the eighteenth-century school. It is reached through a small doorway behind the war memorial. A sixteenth- or seventeenth-century fireplace occupies the northern side. On the southern side stands a large polychrome wooden Christ decorated with the symbols of the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the traditional authors associated with the four canonical Gospels. A doorway in the eastern wall leads to a corridor that opens into the nave beneath the rood screen.
Altars and organ
The church once had three altars: the high altar, a northern altar dedicated to Saint Peter, and a southern altar dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. The high altar and the northern altar were removed during the 1975 restoration. Willame’s modern altar replaced the high altar, while baptismal fonts by the same sculptor took the place of the northern altar.
The original Baroque altar in the southern aisle survives. Dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, it has a cream and grey structure with an arched niche containing a statue of the Virgin. Four twisted columns with composite capitals support an entablature bearing a large cartouche with Mary’s monogram, flanked by cornucopias. At the rear gallery of the nave stands the Baroque organ dating from 1763.
Tombstones and statues
Two old tombstones remain inside the church. One is embedded in the left wall of the chancel. The other is mounted on the last pillar of the right aisle near the southern altar. It commemorates Denis de Bremaing, formerly a farmer of Wez, who died on 24 July 1627, and his wife Anne Dubois, whose remaining death date is illegible.
Four polychrome wooden statues from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries stand in the aisles. They represent Saint Roch, associated with protection against epidemics and with pilgrims and confraternities; Saint Fiacre, patron of gardeners; Saint Donatus, invoked for protection against storms and hail; and Saint Hubert, patron of hunters and numerous confraternities.
