Saint Leonard
Zuidschotedorp
8904 Zuidschote (Ieper)
Church | 1920 | Romanesque | Catholic Church
Map
Opening hours
05 April - 30 September
Mon -
Tue -
Wed -
Thu -
Fri -
Sat 10.00 - 17.00
Sun 10.00 - 17.00
Church open from Easter to the end of September.
Religious offices
Description
Saint Leonard is a hall church constructed in regional Gothic style that consists of three naves and a striking brick spire decorated with peculiar ‘thorns’.
The present church dates mainly from 1923 when it was reconstructed by architect Jules Coomans after the demolishing First World War. The interior is neo-gothic and contains communion rails dating from 1923. The organ was made by Jules Anneessens in 1927. This organ-builder from Menen had a lot on his plate with Zuidschote. In 1909 he had played in a new organ for the church but it was destroyed in the war 1914-18. Then he built the present organ (1927) but it was damaged in May 1940 and repaired in 1944. The church underwent a total restauration in 1970.
The old church was built in 1483 with exception of the typical spire which was added in 1551. The present church lies in the middle of a cemetery surrounded by hedges, filled with British and French military graves. In the church two memorial tablets for the war are immured in the wall, in front of the aisle on the left, near the Maria-altar.
The village counts several other war monuments, such as the memorial for the victims of the First German gas attack that took place in Zuidschote in 1915.The monument is placed, together with the cross of reconciliation, on the road to Diksmuide. Nearby several bomb shelters were preserved. With some of the war rubble a Lourdes cave was built. The cave, rebuilt next to the ancient vicarage, is inaugurated on august the 15th 1924.
KIKIRPA : Online Photolibrary
Heritage tops Westhoek-Zuid
Photos
Remarkable elements
Stations of the Cross
Tussen 1950 en 1952 kreeg de kunstenaar Jean Roig de opdracht van pastoor Alois Van Antwerpen om een kruisweg te schilderen. De jonge Spanjaard was naar hier gevlucht tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Het werd een uniek kunstwerk boordevol originaliteit van de kunstenaar waarbij hij zijn eigen kijk geeft op het lijden van Christus. De 15de statie ‘de verrijzenis van Christus’ werd gemaakt doorzelfde kunstenaar maar werd pas in 1997 toegevoegd. Bij elke statie horen meditatieve teksten in versvorm.
Reliquary
Statue of Saint Mary
Stained glass windows
The three windows of the choir were installed in 1926. The window on the left represents the heavenly manna. The central window shows the last supper while the right window shows Abraham's sacrifice.
Wall tapestry
Zalige Jan van Waasten
Military cemetery
When the church was rebuilt in 1922, a cemetery was built around it with the graves of five French and seventy-six British dead: a new piece of 'Holy ground in Flanders Fields'. Many monuments in the Lizerne district are reminders of the horrors of the First World War.
