St. Denis (Liège)

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St. Denis in 2017
St. Denis on a drawing by Remacle Leloup from 1739
St. Denis on a drawing by Jan Weissenbruch (approx. 1850–1860)

The Church of St. Denis ( French Collégiale Saint-Denis de Liège ) is a Roman Catholic church in Liège in Belgium .

The former collegiate church belonging to the diocese of Liège is dedicated to Saint Dionysius of Paris .

The collegiate foundation was one of seven collegiate chapters in Liège. The others were at St. Paul Cathedral , St. Peter, St. Martin Basilica , St. John, ( the Evangelist ), Holy Cross and St. Barthélemy .

history

The church was founded in 987 by the Prince-Bishop of Liège Notger . The church was part of the first city wall and the heavy tower, built of coal sandstone from Eschweiler , was part of the city's defense. Studies of the annual rings in the wood of the ship's roof beams have shown that these date from the period 1012-1015. The Romanesque choir was replaced by the current Gothic choir at the beginning of the 15th century. At the end of the 17th century, the interior of the church was rebuilt based on the Baroque that was prevalent at the time .

After the revolution and the abolition of the chapter in 1797, St. Denis lost part of its church treasure. After the Concordat of 1801 between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius II , it reopened its doors as a parish.

In 1987 the church was restored.

Interior

Many well-known artists are represented by their works in the church, u. a. Windows by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier , the painters Jules Helbig , Louis Counet and Édouard van Marcke and the sculptors Arnold de Hontoire and Jean Del Cour and many more

The organ of the church comes from the organ workshop of Guillaume Robustelly in Liège.

Trivia

The Liège composer André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry learned the basics of music here as an altar boy . His father François (1714–1768) played first violin at the collegiate church of St. Denis. The writer Georges Simenon was baptized in St. Denis in 1903.

Picture gallery

Web links

Commons : St. Denis (Liège)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heritage listing accessed Feb. 22, 2015.

Coordinates: 50 ° 38 ′ 34.4 "  N , 5 ° 34 ′ 28.6"  E