Nos événements

Tucked away on Keizerstraat in Antwerp, the Chapel of Saint Anne, also known as the Keizerskapel or Emperor's Chapel, preserves more than five centuries of urban and religious history. This late-Gothic chapel was raised in 1513-1514 by the guild of cloth shearers, who had just acquired two neighbouring houses. Over the centuries it served changing purposes: from 1578 to 1585 it was used by Lutherans, and from 1625 to 1648 it served as the parish church of the St Willibrord parish.

Between 1670 and 1680 the small building was covered with late-Gothic star vaults and given a marble floor; in 1681 a baroque portal was added. After its closure and sale at the end of the eighteenth century, the chapel was returned to worship from 1800. In 1899 it passed into the hands of the White Fathers; later restorations have carefully preserved the sanctuary.

It is a small, oriented hall church built of sandstone, crowned by a roof turret serving as a little bell tower. Within, a rich baroque furnishing bears witness to fine craftsmanship, with a pulpit by Pieter II Verbruggen (1689-1691) and a high altar of 1653 by Hendrik Hynderick and Cornelis Van Nerven, a wooden portico altar with Corinthian columns painted to imitate marble.