The

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

of Our Lady of Lourdes is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church at

Oostakker Oostakker (), formerly spelled Oostacker, is one of the smaller former municipalities which were merged into Ghent (from which it is only two miles), the capital of the Belgian province of East Flanders. The hamlet is mainly known for the Shrine o ...

, near

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Built in

neogothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style at the end of the XIXe century it is the most important centre of Marian pilgrimage in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

. In 1873 the Marquise of Courtebourne-de Nédonchel had a

Lourdes grotto The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes () is a Catholic Marian shrine and pilgrimage site dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes in the town of Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France. The sanctuary includes several religious buildings and monuments around ...

built in the gardens of her château at Slotendries. People from

and other nearby locations asked to be allowed to visit the grotto and pray there, and it was claimed that in 1875

Pieter De Rudder Pieter De Rudder (July 2, 1822 in Jabbeke – March 22, 1898), in many French books Pierre De Rudder, in English Peter De Rudder. His recovery from a broken leg is one of the most famous recognized Lourdes miracles (a bronze cast of his bones i ...

was miraculously healed of a compound fracture. To accommodate the resulting increase in the number of pilgrims, a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

church based on plans by E. Van Hoecke-Peeters (slightly modified by J. B. Bethune) was completed in 1876 and consecrated in 1877. It was entrusted to the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, to which the Marquis's late son had belonged. In one of the towers there is a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

made up of 49 bells, cast by the Michiels Foundries in the 1950s. The keyboard was temporarily removed during renovation works in the 1970s but has not yet been replaced to this date.

References

* Basilica churches in Belgium Roman Catholic churches in Ghent Churches in East Flanders Roman Catholic churches completed in 1876 1876 establishments in Belgium Roman Catholic shrines in Belgium 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Belgium {{Europe-RC-church-stub

See also

References