Nos événements
Death and destruction May 1940
An old frame, found in a cupboard of the sacristy, shows, among other things, the various members of 1 family who perished in the bombing ( 10 May 1940) of the airfield in our village. Also the church, thought to have anti-aircraft guns installed in its keep-like tower was hit by firebombs on 13 May and burnt down... The village community overcame this double tragedy. With the financial support of many Goetsenhoven residents, reconstruction work was carried out and completed in 1955. Photo material is projected throughout.
Event Host Building
Sint- Laurentius
At Goetsenhoven, a village in the municipality of Tienen, the Church of Saint Lawrence dominates its surroundings with its high, square tower, the only part to have crossed the centuries almost untouched.
Romanesque in origin, the church was built in the first years of the twelfth century. Its powerful late-Romanesque tower, of Overlaar quartzite and flanked by a round stair turret, dates from around 1200. The building suffered greatly from the wars of the age of Louis XIV and from the fire of 1690, after which it long remained half abandoned; the tower was restored in 1732, and the church took its present form during an enlargement in 1774.
The nave, covered with a flat ceiling, leads to a choir built of sandstone, in a luminous Brabantine Gothic of the fifteenth century. The church preserves a Gothic font of the sixteenth century. A fire destroyed much of the interior decoration in 1940, and some walls had to be rebuilt. The building is protected as a monument.
Building profile
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