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The Saint-James church is still Antwerp’s starting venue for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostella. Since time immemorial pilgrims from far and near took the trip to the grave of apostle James the Great, who according to a legend lies in a Roman graveyard in Galicia. Alongside these roads, churches and chapels for the pilgrims were built all over Europe.

In 1404, Saint James’ guild bought a piece of land near the house of pilgrimage next to the Kipdorp (now Saint-James place) to build a chapel that was brought into use in 1415. In 1491 the first stone was then laid of the mighty tower of the current gothic Saint-James church that had to be higher than that of the current cathedral, the Mother church. Due to shortage of funds work had to be stopped regularly, and so the work on the presbytery could only be started at the beginning of the 17th century. During the following 160 years the landlords remained loyal to the Brabant gothic style. After the iconoclasm that wrecked the whole interior, altars were also built in renaissance- and baroque style. In 1656, a chapter was installed in the renovated church, that in 1705 was elevated to ‘Renowned Chapter’.

The church has an overwhelming interior with 23 altars and an extra-ordinary art collection with names like Jordaens, Rubens, Van Balen and the burial chapel of Peter Paul Rubens.

As befits a pilgrim church, the virtues of mercy are central in the iconography.
The original altar of the Saint Roch chapel (1517) depicts in 12 scenes how Saint Roch visited and helped the plague victims on his pilgrimage to Rome. In the apse chapel we can see how Charles Borromeo asks Mary for mercy for the terminally ill and on a tiny painting on the backside of a pillar in the nave, we can see a Trinitarian freeing captured civilians from the hands of a slaver. On the opposite pillar we can see ‘Charity’ handing out coins to 4 boys and girls. The red uniform that the children are wearing is a sign that they were being tutored in the ‘House of Apostles’ in the Rode street, a school founded as a private initiative by canon Hendrik Merchier to educate the poor. They received the typical red uniform as a gift. On the other side, banker Lantschot lets us know on his gravestone how he hoped to receive divine mercy for his charity.

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Monumental Antwerp churches

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