Saint-Brice (Tournai)

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Saint-Brice in Tournai

The Saint-Brice Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Tournai in the Belgian province of Hainaut . The Church bears the patronage of Brictius of Tours , fourth Bishop of Tours and successor of St. Martin in this office.

construction

The building in its current form is a three-aisled Romanesque basilica , which has both Romanesque and Gothic elements in its extensions . During the Second World War , the church was badly damaged in air raids in 1940 due to its proximity to Tournai train station, but the walls were preserved. The reconstruction was completed in 1954. The original structure was built in the last quarter of the 12th century in the Gothic style. The roof is covered with red tiles. A striking feature of the building is the fifteenth-century belfry on a square floor plan. It is connected to the central crossing tower , which rises above the transept , by a flanked tall nave. The choir consists of a three-aisled hall longhouse with three bays of the same height. The walls are made of local limestone.

A Romanesque crypt from the 12th century was discovered under the central chancel. On May 27, 1653, the grave of the Sal-Franconian ruler Childerich I (d. 481/82) was discovered by a worker during excavation work to build a hospice near the church .

Furnishing

Inside the church there is a wooden ceiling. A painting by Gaspar de Crayer shows the Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain giving her jewelry to the Basilica of Our Lady of Hal. The Belgian sculptor George Grard created the altar, the door of the tabernacle and a bronze baptismal font with the motif "Adam and Eve" between 1966 and 1971 . Individual pieces of equipment such as furniture, large chandeliers and statues of saints were created by the tournais artist Nelly Mercier.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Open Churches , accessed on March 14, 2016.
  2. ^ Ernst Günther Grimme : Belgium. Reflection of Europe (= DuMont art travel guide. ). 7th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7701-0825-6 .
  3. ^ Ministère de la Communauté Française - Administration du Patrimoine Culturel: Le Patrimoine monumental de la Belgique. Volume 6: Province de Hainaut. Arrondissement de Tournai. Part 1: (A - T). Editions Mardaga, Liège 1978, ISBN 2-8021-0020-3 , p. 34.
  4. ↑ In detail: Raymond Brulet: La tombe de Childéric et la topographie funéraire de Tournai à la fin du Ve siècle. In: Michel Rouche (Ed.): Clovis. Histoire et Mémoire. Volume 1: Le baptême de Clovis, l'événement. Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-84050-079-5 , pp. 59-77; Kurt Böhner :  Childerich von Tournai III. (Archaeological). In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1981, ISBN 3-11-006513-4 , pp. 441-460. Cf. also Matthias Becher : Clovis I. The rise of the Merovingians and the end of the ancient world. Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61370-8 , p. 132 ff.
  5. ^ Fabienne Vilvorder, Marie-Jeanne Ghenne-Dubois, Gérard Coulon, Raymond Brulet: Nouvelles recherches à Tournai autour de la sépulture de Childéric. In: Actes des VIIIe Journées Internationales d'Archéologie Mérovingienne de Soissons. (19-22 June 1986) (= Revue archéologique de Picardie. Vol. 3, No. 1, 1988, ISSN  0752-5656 ). Association Française d'Archéologie Merovingienne, Amiens 1988, pp. 39-43 .

Web links

Commons : Église Saint-Brice, Tournai  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 36 ′ 29.4 "  N , 3 ° 23 ′ 42"  E