Domain of Mary

Groundskeeper Antoon Van den Weyngaert selected a six thousand square metre pine covered plot north of the church for the project. The grotto was consecrated on August 15, 1916. One year later, a Way of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady was added. Sculptor Jozef Lodewijk Jacobin created the stations as bas reliefs set into small concrete rock formations. In 1917, a secluded garden was built, and in front of the Lourdes grotto a pulpit, water source, and pilgrim’s shelter were constructed in rustic concrete.

The park expanded further that same year with a Way of the Cross: fourteen stations sculpted by Antwerp artist Jacques Coomans Senior and embedded in concrete rocks by Jacobin. In 1919, Jacobin added a fourteenth station depicting the Entombment of Christ, integrated into the base of the Saint Roch Chapel. The Way of the Cross was consecrated in 1921.

Several restorations followed in the second half of the 20th century. The Tondeleers company restored the site in 1962, and in 1987 the concrete structures of the stations were repaired and partly rebuilt. The polychrome painting of the Way of the Cross reliefs also dates from this period. Statues of Saint Joseph and a pietà were placed at the beginning and end of the Way of the Seven Sorrows.

Mariadomein

Neuw dedication of the Mariadomein

Inventory of Marian Caves