Brussels No. 2 / Bruxelles

Results: 15 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

view of church exterior - northwest end

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church exterior - west façade - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church exterior in context - west view

Scene Description: with the statue of King Baudouin in the foreground

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church interior - baptistery

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church interior - baptistery - detail

Scene Description: on the exterior steps of the baptistery chapel, a copper container with a matching cover -- not known whether it is related to the baptismal liturgy and ritual; it could be used as a holy-water reservoir

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church interior - crypt

Scene Description: remains of the original Romanesque church here, corresponding roughly to the choir of the later church above

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church interior - crypt

Scene Description: a photograph probably taken in the 1983-1999 excavation; described as a crypt, it is the remains of the original Romanesque church here, corresponding roughly to the choir of the later church above

Image Source: digital photograph [of a photograph] taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of church interior - nave - looking west

view of church interior - plan

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of font and cover

Scene Description: showing also the wall-mounted crane that helps swing the cover open sideways

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: inside the baptistery chapel

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

view of font base - detail

Scene Description: the three bronze fish around the lower end of the base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 August 2016 by BSI

INFORMATION

FontID: 20712BRU

Church/Chapel: Co-Cathédrale collégiale des Ss-Michel et Gudule / Collegiale Sint-Michiels- en Sint-Goedele-co-kathedraal

Church Patron Saints: St. Michael & St. Gudula [aka Goedele / Goule / Gudila / Gudule / Pagus]

Church Location: Sint-Goedelevoorplein, 1000 Brussels / Place Sainte-Gudule, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium -- Tel.: +32 2 217 83 45

Country Name: Belgium

Location: Bruxelles, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest ou Brussel

Directions to Site: Located on the Treurenberg (anc. Molenberg) hill

Ecclesiastic Region: Archidiocèse de Malines-Bruxelles / Mechelen-Brussel

Century and Period: 11th century, Romanesque

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Pol Herman for his help in documenting the fonts of this church

Church Notes: original church 9thC; re-built 11thC; expanded 13th, 16thC

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

On-site notes: the present font at this church is modern and is located in the baptistery chapel in the north aisle [no physical access permitted during our visit]; it appears to be made of black marble or Tournai limestone, and consists of a shallow round moulded basin raised on a baluster-shaped pedestal base with three bronze fish at the ends of the lower end; the basin is reinforced with three metal rods [not known whether they are originall]. Brass moulded dome font cover with ball finial, operated by wall-mounted metal crane. [NB: we have no information on the medieval font(s) of this church]. A communication to BSI (e-mail of 26 June 2024) from Pol Herman refers to several fonts in this church at some time. PH refers to an article in the Bulletin des Commissions Royales d’Art et d’Archéologie, dixième année, 1871: Trèsor Artistique de la collégiale de Sainte-Gudule à Bruxelles, p. 152, that informs about a brass baptismal font was located in a baptismal chapel and that was probably destroyed in March 1793 and melted by the Sans-culottes, as they seized all the metal objects in the church, to remelt them into money. Among the objects was a baptismal font. PH further notes that there are a large number of stone fragments described and illustrated in an article by Anagnostopoulos & Fourni (2018) in which a number of stone fragments were dumped in the unconsecrated crypt of the cathedral, among which is an interesting zoomorphic head that "reminds me of the bestiary that I have seen on the base of Scandinavian fonts". PH, however, informs in a later communication (e-mail of 13 August 2024) that he has received confirmation from Michel Fourny that the fragment was originally part of the base of a colimn, not of a baptismal font]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.847778, 4.360278

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 50′ 52″ N, 4° 21′ 37″ E

UTM: 31U 595760 5633779

REFERENCES

Anagnostopoulos, Pierre, "Pierres sculptées ensevelies au XIIIe siècle dans la crypte romane de l’ancienne collégiale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule à Bruxelles. Des fouilles archéologiques à l’interprétation", 2018, 96/1, Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, 2018, pp. 89-120; r["References"]