Sankt-Annenquelle (Brussels)

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The Sankt-Annenquelle with the chapel on the right
St. Anne's Chapel with a spring in front of it
The last remaining station on Archduchess Isabella's pilgrimage

The Sankt-Annenquelle or Sankt-Annen-Fontäne ( French Source / Fontaine Sainte Anne ; ndl. Sint-Annabron / -fontein ) is a water source on the eastern slope of the Laekener Park in Laeken / Laken , a district in the north of the city ​​of Brussels in the Brussels Capital Region . It is also called the “source of the five wounds” because of five individual source currents that are supposed to remind of the sacred wounds . According to legend, the spring water has a healing effect on fever, cramps and eye problems.

St. Anne , the mother of Mary , is called upon for a blessing of children and a happy birth because, according to the tradition of the Proto-Gospel of James, she gave birth to her daughter after twenty years of childless marriage. The Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain made a weekly pilgrimage to the spring to call St. Anne, because although she had given birth to three children, they had died in infancy and thus her and her husband, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria an heir to the throne was missing. Even after her husband's death in 1621, she continued to make a pilgrimage to the Sankt-Annenquelle. In 1615 she had a paved tree-lined avenue built as a direct connection between the old Laeken village center with the Laeken Church of Our Lady and the spring, the avenue du Duc / Hertoghsdreve, today Drève Sainte-Anne / Sint-Annadreef.

The architect Jacques Francart laid fourteen chapels to commemorate the seven sorrows of Mary and the seven joys of Mary along the 2,400 paces long walk . Only one remains and is now in the Rue Mellery / Mellerystraat on the outer wall of the boundary of the Laeken Castle .

In 1625 the spring was rimmed and a chapel was built to the north of it. This is used today by the Russian Orthodox Church and belongs to its Archdiocese of Brussels.

To the east in the immediate vicinity is the old cadet school, which today houses the European School Brussels IV , to the south is Stuyvenberg Castle and to the north is Laeken Castle .

Web links

Commons : Sankt-Annenquelle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Guides des communes de la région bruxelloise: Bruxelles (Laeken, Neder-Over-Heembeek, Haeren). Guides CFC-Éditions, Brussels 2005, ISBN 2-930018-56-9
  1. ^ Jeroen De Smet: Het Mirakel van Sint-Anna . De Nekker (Laeken) January-February 2017, page 5

Coordinates: 50 ° 53 '14.6 "  N , 4 ° 21' 10.1"  E