Open Churches Days at
Sint-Catharina

Neo-Gothic cruciform church built in 1876-1879 to a design by Eugeen Gife.

We know very little about the old church. The oldest remains can be found in the right transept, a gravestone of a Young Lady Lysbeth, Countess of Wezele, who died on 12 November 1444.

We can locate the site of the old church on the basis of an old cadastral map, and the outlines have been marked in dark shades in the village square by the local historical society.

Construction of the new neo-Gothic church began in 1876, following in the footsteps of St Guibert's church in Schilde, built a few years earlier in 1861. Like its predecessors, the new church is dedicated to Saint Catherine.

The church is 41 metres long and 13 metres high in the nave. It was commissioned at the end of 1878 and solemnly consecrated on 29 September 1879.

During the Second World War, the Germans removed 3 of the 4 bells from the bell tower. They were replaced by new bells between 1952 and 1958.

Furnishings: statue of Christ on the cross, polychrome wood, first half of the 18th century; statues of saints by Jan Baptist Van Wint, designed and dated between 1891 and 1904. Neo-Gothic altars; choir stalls from the 18th century; neo-Gothic pulpit by Jan Baptist Van Wint after a design by J. Bilmeyer, designed and dated 1900; confessionals with statues of hermits representing Saint Peter and Saint, Church and Faith, from 1750; organ from 1881 by P. Stevens-Vermeersch, alterations around 1875 by fa. Aerts and Castrel; bluestone tombstone by Lysbet van Wesele (+ 1444) with representation and coat of arms of the deceased.

The pulpit was designed around 1900 by the architect J. Bilmeyer and executed by the sculptor Jan Baptist Van Wint. The central theme represents the Sermon on the Mount. The figure at the bottom of the pulpit represents the Holy Emperor Henry.

The parish church and its surroundings are protected as a town or village view.