Nos événements

On the highest ground in Bredene, the Church of Saint Riquier has watched over the village for almost a thousand years. Its earliest written mention dates from 1087, when the parish was entrusted to the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Riquier; a priory already stood here of old, offering shelter to monks, travellers and the sick.

The building has endured a great deal. Enlarged in the fourteenth century, the church saw its tower blown up by Spanish troops in 1600, and a fire caused heavy damage in 1640; each time it was restored. Having grown too small, it gained two side aisles and a wooden bell tower in 1699. By the nineteenth century the old church had become too dilapidated to keep, and it was replaced by a spacious neo-Gothic sanctuary designed by the architect Pierre Francois Buyck: begun in 1871, the works were only completed in 1907.

Precious pieces were carefully preserved from the earlier church: an oak Louis XIV pulpit (1727) whose bowl rests on a figure of Saint Riquier, Baroque confessionals of 1720 and 1740, an organ built around 1750 by Andries-Jacob Berger of Bruges, and a marble font of 1842. The church is listed in the inventory of architectural heritage.