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Christmas village
Christmas is explicitly present in Tongres Basilica. Festive Christmas lights. Giant Christmas trees. Lots of greenery. And a Christmas village with seven different scenes. Each weekend, the set-up is adapted to the time of year. From the Annunciation to the Visit of the Three Wise Men. Traditionally on the evening of the opening of the Christmas village, just before the beginning of Advent, the Friends of the Nativity sit together around a drink to discuss the set-up for the next year. Each year a different theme is taken up, this year pole houses and water features were chosen. The construction of this Christmas village is paid for each year with the money thrown into the ponds and wishing well by the many visitors.
More than twenty thousand visitors come to the Christmas village every year. In the Christmas meadow, there are pleasant seats for children. Many classes like to come and listen to beautiful Christmas stories. Groups come to sing at the nativity scene. A highlight is always the vigil. A primary school class from Tongeren comes that evening to watch and sleep in and around the crib. They evening meals together, listen and sing, watch a Christmas film, try to get some sleep and get a nice breakfast in the morning.
The big moment is the distribution of the Peace Light that the Friends collected from the central distribution point in Eupen. In a torchlight procession, the Peace Light is brought to the basilica from where it is further distributed throughout the diocese of Hasselt. The packed church prays for peace, listens to contemplative words and the stylish performance of a choir and orchestra.
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Our Lady of the Nativity
Tongeren's church history dates back to Roman times. In the mid-fourth century, a Roman Basilica in Atuatuca Tungrorum was used as a house of worship. The current service altar still stands above the altar of the then bishop Saint Servatius. Remains of a Merovingian, Carolingian, Ottoman and Romanesque church have been found at the same location.
After the Romanesque church was destroyed, a new Gothic church was built in 1240, a three-aisled cruciform basilica with an extended choir for the many canons and clergy. The Romanesque cloister of the chapter (12th century) was preserved.
On 20 February 1931, Pope Pius XI elevated the church to Basilica, with Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy, as its patron saint. The miraculous statue (1479) was crowned in 1890 at the Pope's request. Since then, the seven-yearly Coronation Festival has been the largest procession in our country with more than 3,000 participants.
The main altar bears an Antwerp retable with 160 figures recounting the life of Our Lady (c. 1500). The historic stained-glass windows around the altar date from 1548. Oak choir stalls, six confessionals and the pulpit date from the 17th-18th century. The imposing choir lectern in the shape of an eagle and the Easter candelabra, both by John Joses of Dinant, are in brass (1372). Among the numerous statues in polychromed wood, you can see, among others, Christ on the Cross, (Ottoons 10th century), a Pieta (cia. 1380), a Christ on the Cold Stone (1530). The mural on the fourth northern column depicts St Peter (early 15th century), this one in the last southern side chapel St Egidius (c. 1525). The former brass choir screen is now under the rood screen. The monumental Le Picard organ (1750) and the choir organ (with 16th-17th century core) bear witness to the rich musical life of the Basilica.
The Basilica site is among the most important ecclesiastical sites in our country. Besides the Basilica itself, it houses the Teseum as tourist access to the richest treasury in situ, the imposing Romanesque cloister, an underground archaeological site (2500m²) with remains of prestigious Roman villas and of 1700 years of church construction and the belfry church tower recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Both the Basilica and the Teseum each enjoy two green Michelin stars. Worth a diversion.
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