In the early 10th century, a small church already stood on the road from Ghent to Nevele, at the highest point of the former village of Mariakerke, which was at that time three-quarters wetlands.
The church building we see now most likely dates from the 13th century, although it has undergone changes to its structure over the centuries.
The architect Auguste Van Assche (1826-1907) restored the building to its original form and added two bays. He also designed part of the interior in neo-Gothic style. There are three retables by Jean-Baptiste Bethune (1821-1894), the founder of the St Luke’s Schools.
The unique churchyard with the bishops’ gallery was also designed by Bethune in 1873, but it was never completed. The gallery was used as the burial place for Ghent’s bishops until 1959. After that, they were able to be interred in the cathedral’s crypt once again. Also worth a visit is the picturesque old village centre near the church.
In one word: understated►
The grey tones of the Church of Our Lady of the Nativity are a result of the Belgian black limestone it is built from, typical of the Scheldt Gothic style. The light softly filtering through the colourful stained-glass windows onto the brick walls and separating arches in the same Belgian black limestone imbues this place with a peaceful atmosphere.
The neo-Gothic décor is subtly incorporated into the interior, giving it an understated feel that encourages contemplation.
History of a church►
In 937, a place of worship was built on the site of the current church. The initiative is likely to have come from St Peter’s Abbey in Ghent, which had the right of patronage over the parish. This church was probably a three-aisled Romanesque church, with four bays and a choir but no transept. The tower on the crossing is a surviving reference to this Romanesque style. In the 13th century, it underwent a major renovation in Scheldt Gothic style: the transept was added, the choir was extended, a belfry was added to the tower, increasing its height, and the side aisles were modified. In the following centuries, many further changes were made.
The full neo-Gothic restoration and extension from 1887-1892 by the architect August Van Assche entailed fundamental changes as part of an all-round concept: sculptures, paintings, stained-glass windows and murals all complement the architecture. Jean-Baptiste Bethune designed the stained-glass windows and the retables in the choir. His stained-glass studio was located in the Prinsenhof in Ghent. He believed in a unity of style, and he passed this on to his students.
The Church of Our Lady of the Nativity was a popular pilgrimage site for a long time, with a procession around the church in honour of St Cornelius, venerated and invoked for convulsions, epilepsy, nervous disorders and sick cattle. The Octave of St Cornelius, an eight-day celebration, began on 29 June with a procession. A beautiful shrine still holds a relic of this saint.
History of a place►
The church square in the centre of Mariakerke is a nationally listed conservation area for its architectural and historical value, as a rural village centre that grew up around the Gothic and neo-Gothic parish church, the churchyard and the unique gallery. The wall around the church, which was once curved but is now straight, has a small tower from which the village constable could call out public announcements.
Surrounding it are the rectory (1782 and 1853), a former farmhouse, and the St Cornelius village inn, named after the saint, although now it is known by all as ‘Den Boer’. There is also the former Sunday school, the sexton’s house and Claeys-Boúúaert Castle estate, which is connected to the church square by an avenue of linden trees.
The churchyard, with its straight paths, was designed in 1873 and divided into two sections by a wall. On the gallery side (left), the Ghent bishops’ cemetery was constructed for the strict Catholics in Ghent and the monastic orders. They were not allowed to be buried at the Western Cemetery (known as the ‘Geuzenkerkhof’) due to an irreconcilable ideological conflict between the liberal mayor Charles de Kerchove de Denterghem and the bishop, Henricus Bracq. On the right-hand side, there is the ‘Mariakerks’ cemetery for deceased residents of Mariakerke. Since its merger with Ghent in 1977, this division no longer exists.
The bishops’ gallery (1874) is an ornate, L-shaped neo-Gothic structure, commissioned by Bishop Henricus Bracq (1865-1888) and designed by Jean-Baptiste Bethune. Only twenty-two of the thirty-three bays on the design drawing were completed. Bishop Bracq himself paid for a Calvary in the chapel over the burial vault. This is also a design by Bethune, executed by the Blanchaert brothers. There is a burial vault for the canons of St Bavo’s Chapter too. Most of the other vaults were sold to wealthy citizens. The burial vaults can be accessed through an entrance to the gallery. In 1959, the bishops’ mortal remains were quietly removed and placed in the restored crypt of St Bavo's Cathedral.
Highlighted►
The interior of the Church of Our Lady of the Nativity was largely the work of the artists’ collective surrounding Jean-Baptiste Bethune.
The artists’ colony in Maaltebrugge was intensely involved in the project, with contributions from the Blanchaert brothers, Leopold (1832-1913) and Léonard (1834-1905), who were a sculptor and joiner respectively, the painter Adriaan Bressers (1835-1898) and the metalsmith Leopold Firlefyn (1860 -1910).
Neo-Gothic retables
The Church of Our Lady of the Nativity has four altar retables. They appear to be carved in wood, but they were actually cast in a type of lime mortar and then polychromed. Three of the retables are in the same style. These were designed by Jean-Baptiste Bethune, made in Leopold Blanchaert’s studio and polychromed by Adriaan Bressers.
The 1870 retable on the main altar, in the east, depicts scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. This church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and she is its primary patron saint. Mariakerke itself means ‘Mary’s Church’.
There is a second retable from 1873, dedicated to St Joseph, in the side chapel on the northern side. The retable dedicated to St Cornelius was added in 1881.
The fourth retable was only installed around 1900. It comes from the studio of Pauwels-D’hondt, which also crafted the pulpit.
This retable of the Virgin Mary includes a scene from Mary and Joseph’s wedding. Before a Jewish priest, Joseph gives Mary his hand and slides a ring onto her finger. Note the priest’s hand, held up in a gesture of blessing on their marriage. Behind Mary are most probably her parents, Anne and Joachim. Her suitors hold their staffs in their hands.
Joseph’s staff is blossoming and there is a flower on it, as a sign that he is the chosen one. On the left, there is another candidate for Mary’s hand: he is breaking his staff in frustration at not being chosen. This story appears only in apocryphal texts, not in the Bible. The story of the other suitor influences the iconography: to decide who would marry Mary, Joseph and his rivals brought their staffs to the temple. Once there, all the staffs remained bare, but Joseph’s started to blossom, by analogy to the budding of Aaron’s staff (Num. 17,16-26).
The stained-glass windows of the main altar
A typical feature of Jean-Baptiste Bethune’s neo-Gothic style is the set of stained-glass windows behind the main altar, including medallions inside the accolades. <./p>
The religious scenes depicted here are easily recognisable. In 1979-1980, the windows were taken down piece by piece, restored and replaced.
However, two mistakes were made in their recomposition. The two round stained-glass windows at the top left and right were switched around so that the angels hailing the Virgin Mary, represented here as Regina Caeli, Queen of Heaven, face outwards instead of inwards.
When replacing the lower medallions depicting the Virgin Mary’s life, another error was made: the upper part of the first medallion (Mary’s visit to her cousin Elisabeth) and the upper part of the fourth medallion (the Flight into Egypt), were switched around.
The pulpit
The pulpit was designed by Pieter Pauwels and has been in the church since 1894.
The scenes on the walls tell a story about the Gospel of Great Joy: a twelve-year-old Jesus talking to the teachers, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and Paul preaching in Athens. Here, the words ‘Ignoto Deo’ can be read, meaning ‘to an unknown god’.
The Athenians worshipped many gods and had built this altar to worship a god that maybe existed but that they did not know. Paul says: “That which you worship in ignorance, this is what I am proclaiming to you. This unknown god is the One True God”. A clever technique for persuasion.
The organ case at the rear of the church comes from the workshop of Pieter Pauwels, like the Virgin Mary retable. It was made after his death, in the same style as the pulpit.
The St Cornelius reliquary
At the front of the church, on the left, stands its most important and precious piece of religious heritage: a reliquary in honour of St Cornelius. It dates from 1902 and is a fine example of neo-Gothic metalwork by Leopold Firlefyn. The reliquary was restored in 2013 and then placed in a glass display case for optimal protection.
Cornelius became pope at the time of the persecution of Christians in Rome. He held the papacy from 251 to 253, when he died from the hardships of banishment. According to some legends, he was beheaded.
The reliquary is made of gilded copper and finished with silver, enamel and semi-precious stones. It is in the shape of a chapel, measuring 100cm in height and width, and 30cm deep. One of the long sides tells the story of the Miraculous Catch of Fish: ‘Homines eris capiens’: “From now on, you will be a fisher of men”. The other long side tells the story of Pope Cornelius healing a lame woman, the wife of a centurion.
On the roof of the reliquary, we see two kneeling angels. In one hand they hold up a crown, and in the other hand, they hold the reliquary itself, said to contain a relic of St Cornelius. During the ‘Octave’, an eight-day period in honour of St Cornelius, the reliquary was fitted into a kneeling bench with a red velvet cushion.
Cornelius was invoked to protect cattle and also against febrile convulsions. From 1840, the celebration grew to attract a huge turnout. As of the mid-20th century, antipyretics and antibiotics began saving many lives. This put an end to the need to ask St Cornelius for help with healing, and eventually devotion to the saint waned away as well.
Stations of the Cross
The stations of the cross in the church, by Frans-Jozef Coppejans (1867-1947), were consecrated in 1909. He most likely painted the stations of the cross on canvas in his studio, with help from his students from St Luke’s School in Ghent. The canvases would then have been glued into the niches in the church walls.
Coppejans added a symbol above each pair of stations of the cross. Above stations 11 and 12, for instance, we see a pelican feeding its young with its own blood, a symbol for Jesus giving his life for the people.
There is another striking element in these two stations: in number 11, Jesus is lying on the cross with a nail driven through his feet, the left foot on top of the right. But in the next station, Jesus is hanging on the cross with his right foot on top of his left. Was this a mistake, or a prank by the students? Coppejans’ grave is approximately 25 metres away from the church, at the front, in the ‘Ghent’ part of the cemetery.
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