Church of Saint George, Leffe

Architecture

13th-century church in the Leffe district of Dinant on the Meuse – with a Romanesque core and historic flood marks on its portal.

Interesting facts

The record flood of 31 December 1925 reached 1.37 metres above today's ground level.
The 1968 bell turret replaces one lost in 1918.
Leffe was never inside Dinant's town walls.

Why visit

Church with a 13th-century Romanesque core
Historic flood marks on the portal
Setting on the Meuse near Leffe Abbey

The Church of Saint George (Église Saint-Georges) stands in Leffe, a suburb of Dinant on the right bank of the Meuse, on the Place Père Pire facing the river. Leffe was never inside the town walls. Construction began around 1230; the originally Romanesque and Gothic building still looks Romanesque thanks to its compact volume.

In the 17th and 18th centuries all the windows were altered, giving the church a classical appearance. The three-aisled basilica with five bays, a two-bay choir and a five-sided apse is built of limestone rubble. The classical west portal sits within the outline of an older Romanesque round-arched portal. The square bell turret dates from 1968 and replaces a predecessor lost in 1918.

Inscriptions on the portal jambs record the floods of December 1740 and the record flood of 31 December 1925, which reached 1.37 metres above today’s ground level. The church has been a listed monument since 1984.

History

Construction began around 1230, originally Romanesque and Gothic, remodelled in classical style in the 17th and 18th centuries, side windows and oculi added in the 19th century, new bell turret in 1968 replacing the one lost in 1918, listed in 1984.

Special features

Three-aisled basilica of limestone rubble with five bays, a two-bay choir and a five-sided apse. Classical portal within a Romanesque round-arched portal, flood marks on the jambs.

Map

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Nearby

Leffe Abbey
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Crèvecœur Castle
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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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Collegiate Church of Our Lady, Dinant
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