Saint John the Evangelist
Kerkstraat z/n
3080 Tervuren
Church | XIV | Gothic | Catholic Church
Map
Opening hours
01 January - 31 December
Mon 9.00 - 17.00
Tue 9.00 - 17.00
Wed 9.00 - 17.00
Thu 9.00 - 17.00
Fri 9.00 - 17.00
Sat 9.00 - 17.00
Sun 9.00 - 17.00
Guided tour
toerisme@tervuren.be
heemkundetervuren@gmail.com
Religious offices
Description
Henry 1st, Duke of Brabant, had a small church built in the courtyard of his castle between 1200 and 1225. Over time the master builders integrated exquisitely old and new, the Romanesque and the Gothic to form a beautiful architectural ensemble.
Some rococo additions were made to the church in the 18th century; a Gothic window was built to house a baroque altar (1761). Around 1948 the cure Davidts, wanting to return to pure gothic, restored the church but left the baroque altar untouched.
As the church belonged personally to the dukes of Brabant until 1280 it is not surprising to find the tombs of three dukes in the choir of the church: Antoine of Burgundy (+1415), John 4th (+1427) and Phillippe de Saint Pol (+1430).
In addition the church has some very beautiful Gothic accessories, the dead Christ in polychrome stone, remnants of frescoes in the transept and a superb rood screen whose three panels decorated with ten biblical paintings must be seen.
Photos
Remarkable elements
Rood screen
The late Gothic rood screen originally used to define the choir containing the mausoleum of the Dukes of Brabant. It depicts ten passionate scenes. The rood screen was deconstructed in 1739 and it took until 1948 before it was reconstituted at the back of the church. The brothers Keldermans from Leuven made it in 1525. The master brand of the quarry can be found on the columns. Most rood screens have disappeared during the iconoclastic and under influence of the Council of Trent. Therefore, they are rather rare.
Murals
The church used to be very colourful in the Middle Ages. Residues of polychrome on corbels and fragments of murals of the 15th century that visualised the Bible and the Gospel can still be found. The murals were covered with plaster in 1647, which was actually long after the time that the Council of Trent wanted the removal of these representations.The layer of plaster was removed in 1948 in the context of restoring the church to an authentic Gothic church. The murals were severely damaged but recently there have been attempts to restore the remainders.
Portico altar
The church became baroque after the religious wars. Frans Vanderborght and Niclaes van Mons made the painted marble portico altar in 1761. Stained glass windows replaced the side porches in 1947. The coat of arms of Prince Charles of Lorreine adorns the top of the altar since 1769. It was installed on the celebration of his 25th anniversary as governor of the Austrian Netherlands. The Calvary is an anonymous painting that originally came from a monastery or abbey church.
Tombstone Dukes of Brabants
The last Dukes of Brabant were laid to rest in the crypt under the choir between 1407 and 1430: Anthony of Burgundy and Johanna of Saint Pol, their suns Jan IV (founder of the university of Leuven) and Philip of Saint Pol. Their mausoleum was destroyed in the 16th century. In 1621, the Archduke Albrecht an Isabella ordered this tombstone to be walled at its current location with a text by Ericeus Puteanus, successor of Justus Lipsius at the university of Leuven.
Saint Hubert
Saint Hubert died in 727 in Tervuren. He is depicted in one of the stained glass windows of the choir, on a corbel in the southern transept, on the pulpit, on the Saint Hubert’s altar, as a hunter in a plaster cast from 1867 and in a niche in the northern porch.There is a mural illustrating his conversion in the northern transept. It was created in 1400-1450 and serves as a good indicator of the fact that his worship probably increased in the 16th century.
