Phone +32 81 24 12 74 | Architect Gaetano Matteo Pisoni | |
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Address Place du Chapitre 4, 5000 Namur, Belgium Similar Église Saint‑Loup de Namur, Parc Louise ‑ Marie, Musée des Arts Anciens, Musée Félicien Rops Pro, Parc Attractif Reine Fa | ||
St Aubin's Cathedral, Namur, Wallonia, the only cathedral in Belgium in academic Late Baroque style. It was the only church built in the Low Countries as a cathedral after 1559, when most of the dioceses of the Netherlands were reorganized. It is classified as part of Wallonia's Major Heritage by the Walloon Region.
History
In the interior, there is an ornamented frieze, carved with swags of fruit and flowers between the Corinthian capitals runs in an unbroken band entirely round the church. All colour is avoided, replaced by architectural enrichments and the bas-reliefs in the pendentives of the dome. The interior contains some pieces of art, like paintings by Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens and Jacques Nicolaï, a Jesuit brother and student of Rubens. There is also an old, romanesque baptismal font.
In the cathedral a marble plaque near the high altar conceals a casket containing the heart of Don Juan of Austria, Habsburg governor of the Spanish Netherlands, who died in 1578; his body lies in the Escorial near Madrid.
Despite being in Belgium, the cathedral design has an Italian influence; it was built to designs of the Ticinese architect Gaetano Matteo Pisoni in 1751 and 1767. A tower of the former Romanesque church dated from the 13th century that stood on the site has survived and is located at the west end of the church. In 1908, a Belgian architect, Charles Ménart used the cathedral as inspiration for a church he designed, St Aloysius Church, in Glasgow.