Saint Gummarus Church: A Brabant Gothic Parish Church in Lier, Belgium
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Belgium
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Brabant, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page16 sections
History
Saint Gummarus Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Lier, Belgium, built by the people of the town in the Brabant Gothic tradition between 1378 and 1540. Dedicated to Saint Gummarus of Lier, a seventh-century Christian saint traditionally associated with the town, it belongs to the Diocese of Antwerp and is a protected cultural monument. Its scale and design were intended to approach the spatial program of a Gothic cathedral.
Origins and construction
The church replaced a tenth-century Romanesque building dedicated to John the Baptist. Saint Rumbold’s Cathedral in Mechelen provided an important model, particularly for the choir and nave. Construction proceeded through successive campaigns as funds became available. The Bishop of Cambrai encouraged contributions by granting ecclesiastical benefits, including indulgences.
The tower was begun separately in 1378 and later incorporated into the church. Hendrik Meys of Mechelen was the first architect. Members of the Keldermans family, including Jan II Keldermans, later took part in the work, alongside Herman and Domien de Waghemakere. The tower is popularly known as the “Pepper Pot” and is described as the oldest Brabant Gothic church tower.
Royal associations and religious use
On 20 October 1496, the marriage of Philip the Fair, a Burgundian ruler, and Joanna of Castile was blessed in the Colibrant Chapel. Its main altar was still unfinished, and the ceremony was performed by Hendrik van Bergen, Bishop of Cambrai.
Charles V visited the church in 1516 during his ceremonial entry into Lier as Duke of Brabant, accompanied by his grandfather Maximilian of Austria. For the occasion, five royal lancet windows were made by Nicolaas Rombouts, court glazier to Margaret of Austria, and donated by Maximilian. The windows reflect Italian Renaissance influence and include a depiction of Joanna of Castile. The church also formerly had a collegiate function, with a college of canons who recited the Divine Office.
Saint Gummarus remains central to the church’s religious traditions. The saint’s seventeenth-century silver reliquary is carried through Lier each year on the Sunday after 10 October by 16 members of the Society of Chest Bearers.
Restoration and preservation
Restoration was undertaken repeatedly from the seventeenth century onward. Work from 1632 to 1642 focused mainly on the roof, while major campaigns followed in 1830 to 1868, 1875 to 1877, and 1892. Shelling in 1914 during the First World War caused further damage, particularly to the stained glass. Additional restoration took place from 1939 to 1942 and from 1950 to 1952.
The city council approved a new restoration project in 1993. Its first phase, carried out from 2000 to 2013, concentrated mainly on the exterior. A second phase addressed the interior and stained glass after a dispute with the architect. Preliminary investigations uncovered archaeological remains. The work also continued the historical removal of plaster and introduced underfloor heating and ventilation to create a more stable interior climate.
Remains
Saint Gummarus Church is a large Brabant Gothic building whose 83-metre tower is integrated into the church, although it began as a separate structure. The choir and nave follow the influence of Saint Rumbold’s Cathedral in Mechelen, and the complex retains the spatial organization associated with a Gothic cathedral. Its surviving furnishings, paintings, stained glass, bells, and commemorative objects preserve evidence of the church’s religious and artistic development from the fifteenth century to the modern period.
Choir and liturgical furnishings
Main altar and Saint Gummarus Altar
The main altar dates from the nineteenth century and has a retable, an ornamental structure behind an altar, by Jean Baptiste Anthony. It depicts episodes from the life of Saint Gummarus. The seventeenth-century Saint Gummarus Altar was made by Johannes van Mildert.
Rood screen and choir stalls
A sixteenth-century white-stone rood screen, or choir screen, separates the choir from the nave. Mechelen sculptors decorated it with statues of the Evangelists and Fathers of the Church. The choir stalls date from 1555.
Baroque pulpit
The Baroque pulpit was designed in 1640 to 1642 by Erasmus Quellinus I and his son Artus Quellinus, and carved by Pieter Verbruggen. It is considered one of the earliest naturalistic pulpits in the Low Countries. Caryatids, sculpted human figures used as architectural supports, represent archangels beneath the structure.
Paintings, triptychs, and treasury objects
Paintings and triptychs
The paintings include The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and the Saint Eligius Triptych by the local painter Adriaen de Bie. The Saint Clare and Saint Francis Triptych is said to be by Rubens. The Descent of the Holy Spirit, dated 1612, is attributed to Otto Venius, who was a teacher of Rubens.
The Colibrant Triptych is attributed to Goswin van der Weyden, although it has also been attributed to Rogier van der Weyden, Quinten Massijs, and Gerard David. Its central panel shows the marriage of Joseph and Mary. The left wing depicts the Annunciation, while the right wing shows the Presentation in the Temple. Grisaille donor portraits appear on the backs of the wings.
Treasury
The treasury preserves the Lier Shroud, one of 69 copies of the Turin Shroud. Together with the silver reliquary of Saint Gummarus, it forms part of the church’s material connection with the saint’s continuing cult in Lier.
Stained glass
The church’s stained glass illustrates changing artistic practices from the Gothic and Renaissance periods through the Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance, and Modernist periods. Notable early examples include The Coronation of Our Lady, made in the third quarter of the fifteenth century, and a fifteenth-century window in the right aisle.
Nicolaas Rombouts made the royal stained-glass windows in 1519. Three sanctuary windows were donated by Maximilian of Austria during his 1516 visit, and one depicts Maximilian with his wife, Mary of Burgundy. The Italian Renaissance influence of these windows makes them among the oldest and best-preserved Renaissance-influenced stained-glass examples in the Netherlands.
Later windows include The Baptism of Christ in the Jordan by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, dated 1860, and scenes from the life of Saint Gummarus in Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance styles. Modernist works include The Seven Ways of Love by Michel Martens, dated 1958. The most recent window, Saint Gummarus as Church Builder, Landowner, and Knight, was made by Oscar Calders in 1968.
Tower bells and memorials
Carillon
By the end of the sixteenth century, the tower held 12 bells, most known by name and each associated with a particular social function. The carillon, a set of tuned bells played from a keyboard and pedals, was later expanded, destroyed in a fire, and damaged during wartime. After restoration in 2004, it contained 52 bells and weighed 30 tonnes, making it the heaviest eighteenth-century carillon in Western Europe.
The restored instrument includes an 18-tonne hand-hewn oak bell frame, 52 hand-forged clappers modeled on eighteenth-century examples, and a carillon keyboard based on Louis Zimmer’s 1920s design. Its nearly eight-tonne Gummarus Bell is tuned to G-0, operated from the pedal, and strikes the hours.
Memorials and statues
A memorial frame commemorates 60 people from Lier who died during the First World War. A wrought-iron tree carrying a statue of Saint Gummarus, together with a separate statue of the saint, is also associated with the church.
