St. Stefanus is a Catholic parish church in

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 i ...

, Belgium, part of an Augustinian monastery. It is dedicated to

St. Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

. The present building dates from 1841. The former monastery of 1606 was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1838. The Augustinians temporarily used the church of the

Carmelites , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount C ...

. The church was rebuilt on a design by Jean Baptiste De Baets, using items brought over from the Carmelite church, including a 17th-century Baroque

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, acces ...

, the

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

for the monks, and eight confession stalls. The church was also equipped with statues of saints, including one of St. Stephen created by Brother Prosper Venneman, who also designed the

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in pagan ...

. The church was consecrated on 26 December 1841, the patron saint's feast day. The tower was completed in 1849. Several altars are works by

Gaspar de Crayer Gaspar de Crayer or Jasper de CrayerName variations: Caspar de Crayer and Gaspard de Crayer (18 November 1584 – 27 January 1669) was a Flemish painter known for his many Counter-Reformation altarpieces and portraits. He was a court painter ...

. The main

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

was built by in 1873. A second instrument is a Flentrop-organ, built in 1962, originally for a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul c ...

church in

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

. When that church was put to other use, the organ was sold to the

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 t ...

in Brussels, where it was played by Pierre Cochereau. It was then moved to Ghent. The church and the monastery were listed as historic monuments in 1958; the church was listed as an item of architectural heritage in 2009. The church is a concert venue for mostly sacred music focused on the organs. The program included in 2017 an international organ festival on the theme ''Humor'', with Winfried Bönig, the cathedral organist of

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, playing works by Bach, Franz Lehrndorfer and Naji Hakim, among others. A concert programmed for the "Maarten Luther-jaar", features Max Reger's ''

Der 100. Psalm ' (The 100th Psalm), Op. 106, is a composition in four movements by Max Reger in D major for mixed choir and orchestra, a late Romantic setting of Psalm 100. Reger began composing the work in 1908 for the 350th anniversary of Jena University. T ...

'' in the organ version by François Callebout, performed by the international Reger-Chor, conducted by

Gabriel Dessauer Gabriel Dessauer (born 4 December 1955) is a German cantor, concert organist, and academic. He was responsible for the church music at St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden from 1981 to 2021, conducting the Chor von St. Bonifatius until 2018. He is an inte ...

, with

Ignace Michiels Ignace Michiels (born 7 December 1963) is a Belgian organist, choral conductor and organ teacher. He is internationally known as a concert organist. Career Michiels studied the organ, the piano and the harpsichord at the music academy of Bruge ...

, cathedral organist of

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

References

External links

Gids voor Vlaanderen / 2007

kerkeninvlaanderen.be

osabel.be
De Sint-Stefanuskerk en haar orgels
deprincipaal.be

orgelsite.nl {{Authority control Roman Catholic churches in Ghent Roman Catholic churches completed in 1841 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Belgium