Nos événements

The church thanks its origin to a statue of Mary. Several centuries ago, travellers were regularly attacked by brigands in the region. Elisabeth van Oeteren wanted to protect them and in 1636 she placed a statue of Our Lady in an oak tree on a lonely and empty place. In 1639 a chapel was built, which was named “Our Lady Nightingale at Kortenbos”. Since then, the site was very popular with Mary worshipers.

To cope with the great surge of religious people, the construction of a new baroque pilgrimage church was decided in 1641. The building plan was drawn by a Franciscan, Nicholas Ray. The church was consecrated in 1648, but during the following decades, it was extended with a portal, a transept and a tower, whose top has a lantern and corner turrets. These works were completed in 1725. Exactly two centuries later, the church received two side portals.

The outside of the church consists of simple brick walls, in which marlstone sometimes was inserted. It is a single-aisled cruciform church with a nave of four bays, a transept of two bays, a chancel with a straight bay, an east tower and a sacristy. In the north and south side of the ship, slimline, round arched windows stand out, which accentuate the verticality of the church.

The church has a plastered and whitewashed interior with a rich baroque oak-wood wainscoting, in which two confessionals were fitted by Antoon Bayens from Mechelen. The interior has been preserved almost in its original state and it is very similar to the interior of the abbey church of Averbode. The layout of the nave into bays is enhanced by flat transverse arches between cross-ribbed vaults, which connect to pilasters without capitals.

The main altar and side altars are made out of marbled wood by the Antwerp woodcutter Pieter Scheermaeckers between 1665 and 1710. Above the altar hangs a painting by Gaspar de Crayer from 1662 showing how St. Norbert adores Our Lady. Other altarpieces show Our Lady with St. Norbert and St. Augustine and The Western Auxiliary Saints or Holy Helpers. In addition, the church owns eighteen votive paintings of the Flemish School and twelve paintings with Premonstratensian Saints by Abraham van Diepenbeek.

The terracotta figurine of Our Lady of Kortenbos still has a central place in the front of the church.

KIKIRPA : Photo-library online

See the treasure of this church online on erfgoedplus.be