Nos événements

The Church of Saint Catharine rises in the heart of Maaseik, of which it is the principal parish church, dedicated to Catharine of Alexandria. It follows upon older sanctuaries on this site, whose history reaches back to the founding of the parish in the thirteenth century. The Gothic church that preceded it met a dramatic end: after storm damage, its heavy tower collapsed in 1804, leaving the nave unusable.

The present neoclassical, basilican building was raised between 1840 and 1845 to the design of the architect H. Leemans; the seventy-six-metre tower followed in 1859 after plans by Herman Jaminé and received its striking green-copper spire in 1948. The whitewashed interior is covered by domed vaults and preserves, among much else, a Baroque high altar of about 1700 and a polychrome statue of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child attributed to the Master of Elsloo.

Its greatest treasure lies in the treasury: the Codex Eyckensis, the oldest gospel book in the Benelux, dating from the eighth century, together with relics and very rare early-medieval textiles, partly from the abbey of Aldeneik. Safeguarded through the centuries, these riches are now shown to a wide public as a museum.