Nos événements
permanent exhibition about the church and its treasures
Permanent exhibition about the church and its treasures.
Saint-Rikier church has many antique furniture, paintings, statues, goldsmith's workshops, liturgical vestments, etc. The exhibition is structured in such a way that each visitor can explore it alone. If you would like more information, you can always call on one of the guides present free of charge.
Event Host Building
Sint-Rikier
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.
