Location: Belgium Wallonia Dinant
Gothic church in the heart of Bouvignes-sur-Meuse – destroyed and rebuilt several times, with a Passion altarpiece from Antwerp.
Interesting facts
- The church is 54 metres long.
- The pulpit was acquired from Floreffe Abbey in 1770.
- A missing panel of the Passion altarpiece was recovered in October 2015.
Why visit
- Gothic church with an eventful history
- Works of art from the 16th and 17th centuries
- Easy to combine with Crèvecœur Castle and the Spanish House
The Church of Saint Lambert stands on a rocky promontory in the heart of Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, part of Dinant. Its west choir rests against the town wall near the former La Val gate. A first church was consecrated in 1217; the present building in the Mosan Gothic style dates from the 15th and 16th centuries and keeps older parts, including a small 12th-century crypt. The tower was completed in 1550, and the church is 54 metres long.
Its history is a series of destructions: in 1466 Burgundian troops damaged the town and the church, and in July 1554 French troops sacked Bouvignes and burned the church. On 23 August 1914 German shells badly damaged the building, and in May 1940 it was bombed again. Between 1924 and 1927 the church was extensively restored.
Its furnishings include a Passion altarpiece from an Antwerp workshop (mid-16th century), an early 16th-century oak statue of Christ bound, a 17th-century pulpit acquired from Floreffe Abbey in 1770, and a funerary slab of 1629 in dinanderie, the brass work typical of the region. The church has been a listed monument since 1948.
History
First church consecrated in 1217, present building 15th/16th century, tower completed in 1550. Destroyed in 1466 and 1554, restored from 1559, damaged in 1914 and 1940, restored 1924–1927, listed in 1948, weathervane rooster reinstalled in 2017 for the 800th anniversary of the dedication, roof renewed in 2018.
Special features
Mosan Gothic church on a rocky promontory by the town wall, 12th-century crypt, Passion altarpiece from Antwerp, pulpit from Floreffe Abbey, dinanderie funerary slab of 1629.
Map
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Nearby
Spanish House of Bouvignes
Dinant, Wallonia
0.1 km away
Renaissance house of 1568–1578 in Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, built after the destruction of 1554 – today a museum of the medieval heritage of the Meuse region.
Route
Crèvecœur Castle
Dinant, Wallonia
0.6 km away
Castle ruins on a cliff some 80 metres above the Meuse at Bouvignes – freely accessible and linked to a well-known legend of three ladies.
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Leffe Abbey
Leffe, Wallonia
0.8 km away
Premonstratensian abbey on the Meuse in Dinant-Leffe, founded in 1152 – the namesake of the well-known abbey beer and still home to a community of canons.
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Church of Saint George, Leffe
Leffe, Wallonia
0.9 km away
13th-century church in the Leffe district of Dinant on the Meuse – with a Romanesque core and historic flood marks on its portal.
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Collegiate Church of Our Lady, Dinant
Dinant, Wallonia
1.7 km away
Gothic collegiate church on the Meuse with a distinctive onion-shaped spire against the cliff – Dinant's landmark, with one of the largest church windows in Europe.
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Citadel of Dinant
Dinant, Wallonia
1.7 km away
Fortress on the rock above Dinant and the River Meuse – today a museum, also reached by cable car, with views over the town and the river.
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Sources
Image: Jmh2o · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
