Basilica of Our Lady: Tongeren’s Gothic Basilica and Former Cathedral
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Belgium
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Belgian, Holy Roman Empire, Roman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Basilica
On this page17 sections
History
The Basilica of Our Lady is the principal Roman Catholic church of Tongeren, Belgium, and a major Gothic monument whose foundations preserve a long history of Christian worship. It stands on a site used from Roman times and became the former cathedral of the suppressed Diocese of Tongeren, a diocese that no longer exists as an active ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Today it belongs to the Diocese of Hasselt and follows the Roman Rite.
Roman and Late Antique Foundations
Archaeological evidence places Roman activity on the site in the first and second centuries, when pile dwellings stood there. A possible third-century bathhouse was followed by a fourth-century Roman basilica with an apse, a curved end that may have served as a prayer space. Seven churches were later built or substantially altered above the foundations of this fourth-century structure.
Tradition connects an early fourth-century chapel with Saint Maternus, a Late Antique Christian bishop traditionally associated with the beginnings of Christianity in Tongeren. Recent excavation does not support that interpretation. The fourth-century basilica is instead associated with Saint Servatius, who is recorded as bishop of the Tungri at the Councils of Cologne in 346 and Rimini in 359. He is also credited with founding the first church north of the Alps dedicated to Mary, although the surviving evidence for this attribution is limited.
Tongeren probably had an episcopal see in Late Antiquity. Saint Maternus is traditionally identified as its first bishop, but Saint Servatius is the only bishop securely identified in the surviving written record. The see probably moved to Maastricht in the late fourth century and to Liège around 750. The title “bishop of Tongeren” remained in use into the tenth century, and the bishops retained an official residence in Tongeren. The presence of the chapter also suggests that a bishop may occasionally have stayed in the city.
Early Churches and the Collegiate Foundation
A simple single-nave church was built in the mid-sixth century and joined the eastern side of the earlier Roman apse. A ninth-century church followed and may have been the first collegiate church. A collegiate church is governed by a chapter of clergy rather than by a bishop as a cathedral is. A protective wall was built around the church during a period when raids threatened the settlement.
The church remained collegiate for most of its history, governed by a chapter under a dean. The date of the chapter’s foundation is uncertain. An alleged foundation or consecration in 804 by Charlemagne, the early medieval Frankish emperor, and Pope Leo III rests on a forged charter. Documentary evidence confirms the chapter by the mid-tenth century, while strong indications suggest that it fled during the Viking incursions of 881.
A Romanesque church was constructed around 1100. At the same time, a larger wall protected the principal buildings in Tongeren’s centre during a period of intensified regional conflict. The church’s long development therefore combined religious, communal, and defensive functions around an established sacred site.
Fire, Gothic Reconstruction, and the Tower
The Romanesque church was severely damaged in a city fire in 1179. The fire resulted from conflict between Rudolf of Zähringen, the prince-bishop of Liège, and Gerard of Loon, a medieval count. The bishop of Liège’s residence was destroyed as well.
Construction of the present Gothic church began in 1240 after the damage to the Romanesque building. The choir is partly thirteenth-century and partly fourteenth-century, while the nave, transept, and side chapels developed in successive phases between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The church itself was completed in 1536. Construction of the western tower began in 1442 and ended in 1541, and its spire was finished in 1544, although the full planned spire was never realized.
The basilica is regarded as a high point of Meuse Gothic, a regional form of Gothic architecture associated with the Meuse valley. Its tower was repeatedly redesigned or rebuilt because of limited funds and damage from storms and fires. Its incomplete spire gives the tower a notably heavy appearance.
Early Modern Damage and Restoration
The tower burned in 1598. In 1677, during bombardment by the French general Calvo, the Great Fire of Tongeren caused further destruction. Louis XIV, king of France from 1643 to 1715, allocated 20,000 francs for restoration, but the money was insufficient to restore the belfry fully. A belfry is a civic bell tower, historically used for warning, surveillance, and the display of civic authority. Work on the damaged structure began in 1707.
A major restoration directed by Joseph Jonas Dumont took place from 1846 to 1859. It replaced sections of masonry inside and outside the church, rebuilt the south portal in Neo-Gothic form, shortened the adjoining chapter house, and provided that building with a new facade.
Modern Recognition and Archaeology
The collegiate status ended in 1797, when the French administration abolished the chapter while reorganizing ecclesiastical institutions. The church’s property was sold in 1798. After the French occupation, the owners returned the principal organ.
Pope Pius XI recognized the church as a minor basilica on 20 February 1931. A basilica is a church granted a special papal rank, and the title is distinct from the church’s former cathedral or collegiate status. The recognition reflected, among other factors, the basilica’s importance as a pilgrimage centre.
Since 1890, the walnut statue of Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy, has been carried through Tongeren during an annual patronal and pilgrimage festival attended by several thousand people. The statue also plays a central role in the Tongeren Coronation celebrations.
A further restoration campaign began in 1967. Excavations carried out from 1999 to 2008 revealed remains important to the history of the basilica and Tongeren. A basement was created beneath the church to conserve and present the excavated area. The archaeological remains and church treasury are now presented through the Teseum, which incorporates the areas beneath the basilica. The excavated basement opened to the public in 2018.
The tower forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage site “Belfries of Belgium and France,” inscribed in 1999 and extended in 2005. The inscription recognizes the tower’s Gothic architecture and its historical civic functions, including its use as a watchtower, rather than viewing it solely as a religious structure.
Remains
The Basilica of Our Lady is a large Gothic, three-aisled cruciform church organized around a long nave, a choir, transept, square western tower, and three portals. One portal is set in the tower, while the other two terminate the arms of the transept. The choir is unusually long because the former collegiate church needed space for canons and other clergy. The tower rises approximately 55.55 metres and belongs to the construction campaign of 1442 to 1541; its spire was completed in 1544.
Interior Structure
Nave, Choir, and Transept
Pointed-arch arcades on columns divide the nave from the aisles. Some columns are round and made from blocks of marl. Farther west, clustered piers carry more richly decorated foliage capitals. Above the main arcade runs a triforium, an upper passage or arcade, formed by small hard-stone columns. It continues along the transept walls and the bays of the choir.
Rib vaults cover the choir, nave, and transept. In these vaults, intersecting masonry ribs carry the weight of the ceiling. The five-sided polygonal end of the choir has a radiating vault. The building’s parts reflect its long construction history, with the choir beginning in the thirteenth century and the nave, transept, and side chapels developing over later medieval phases.
Portals and Chapels
The late Gothic north portal is richly sculpted and includes a scene of the raising of Lazarus. The south portal was built in 1873 and 1874 in Neo-Gothic form, following the model of the north portal. Its nineteenth-century tympanum, the decorated field above the doorway, shows the glorification of Saint Maternus and the death of Mary.
A south side chapel contains a wall painting from about 1525, representing either Saint Hubert or Saint Giles. A fifteenth-century painting on a pillar between the nave and north aisle depicts another saint, possibly Saint Peter.
Paintings, Windows, and Devotional Images
Five very large choir paintings, each more than five metres high, were made by the Liège painters Jean-Baptiste Juppin and Edmond Plumier. Three show episodes from the life of Maternus, traditionally regarded as the founder of the Diocese of Tongeren. Plumier painted the human figures into landscapes created by Juppin.
Four Renaissance-style choir windows date from 1548 to 1550. Their subjects are the four Doctors of the Church, theologians whose teachings have special recognition in Catholic tradition; Our Lady with Saints Servatius and Trudo; Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child; and the Crucifixion. Other windows are Neo-Gothic, including several made by Jules-Adrien Capronnier, a glass painter from Schaerbeek.
The walnut statue of Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy, was carved in 1479 for the Archbrotherhood of Our Lady of Tongeren, a formally organized devotional association. It stands on a Neo-Romanesque altar and has been venerated as a miraculous image. A polychromed Christ on the Cold Stone dates from the fifteenth century, while a polychromed Pietà dates from the late fourteenth century, around 1380 to 1390.
Altars, Furnishings, and Organs
The main altar may date from the thirteenth century. It carries a Late Gothic carved-wood retable, an ornamental structure behind an altar, depicting the life of Our Lady. Made in Antwerp around 1500 to 1520, the retable was originally produced for Saint Peter in Chains Church in Venray.
Two side altars date from the sixteenth or seventeenth century, while the remaining side altars are nineteenth-century. G. van Schoenbeeck of Liège made the oak choir stalls in 1710. The oak pulpit dates from the eighteenth century, and six confessionals date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Jehan Josès of Dinant made the brass eagle lectern and Easter candlestick in 1372. The eagle lectern stands in the choir.
The principal organ was designed by Jean-Baptiste Le Picard and bears a chronogram, an inscription whose emphasized letters encode a date, indicating 1752. Verschueren organ builders substantially altered it in 1948. Its oak case, in the Liège Baroque style, was made by M. B. Termonia of Liège. A later reconstruction by Manufacture d’Orgues Thomas followed the original design. The instrument has 49 stops distributed across four manuals and a pedal.
A smaller organ in a chapel incorporates parts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is mounted as a swallow’s-nest organ, a small instrument fixed to a projecting gallery or bracket. A choir organ installed in the right transept in 2014 stands on a corner gallery. Manufacture d’Orgues Thomas built it with mechanical action, and Luc Ponet designed its disposition.
Chapter Buildings and Romanesque Cloister
Chapter House and Defensive Remains
South of the basilica stands the former chapter hall, a two-storey Gothic chapter house. Its Neo-Gothic western facade contains the entrance to the Teseum. A round tower incorporated into the chapter-house complex once formed part of the defensive wall around the monastery. That wall predates the thirteenth-century city wall.
Cloister Buildings
East of the church are the former cloister buildings where the canons originally slept and ate before moving into individual canon houses. The complex is one of the rare surviving Romanesque monastic complexes in the Low Countries. Its cloister encloses the courtyard beside the basilica and is the only preserved Romanesque cloister in the Meuse region.
Only the north walk is Romanesque in its present form, and it appears to incorporate fragments from other wings damaged in the fire of 1179. A colonnade of single and paired columns carries Romanesque capitals richly carved with birds and lion heads. These capitals are attributed to the so-called Heimo workshop, whose work shows strong North Italian influence.
Cloister Chapels and Tombs
A heavily weathered Romanesque tympanum above the southern entrance to the courtyard depicts Christ in triumph between two angels. Tomb slabs belonging to canons and laypeople are attached to the cloister walls.
The chapels at the eastern ends of the north and south cloister walks date from the sixteenth century and are Late Gothic. The All Saints’ Chapel has a star vault, a ceiling pattern formed by ribs arranged like a star, and contains several Merovingian sarcophagi. Merovingian refers to the early medieval Frankish dynasty that ruled much of Gaul from the fifth to the eighth century. The Saint Anne Chapel has a Neo-Gothic window depicting scenes from the life of Saint Anne.
Treasury and Earlier Remains
The treasury contains a silver reliquary statue of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child. A reliquary is an object made to contain or display a relic. The statue was made by the Aachen goldsmith Hans von Reutlingen in the early sixteenth century. An Ottonian crucifix, created in the artistic tradition associated with the Ottonian dynasty of the tenth and early eleventh centuries, dates from about 975 and hangs in the cloister.
Below the basilica, the excavated area preserves evidence of the site’s earlier occupation, including the Roman pile dwellings, the possible third-century bathhouse, and the apse of the fourth-century basilica. The present service altar stands above the former apse. Archaeologists also identified a small unidentified monument there that appears to have been venerated for many centuries. The excavated basement forms part of the Teseum and preserves these successive remains beneath the later church.
