Statue of Our Lady (Sint-Niklaas)
Record: 6 m
Parish Church of Our Lady Christian Assistance
Description
History
Unoriented three-aisled neo-Romanesque cross church, after an extensive series of preliminary designs, finally started on 25 November 1841 to a design by architect Louis Roelandt (Ghent). Consecration November 25, 1844. From 1853 to 1870 G. Guffens (Hasselt) and J. Swerts (Antwerp) painted the interior with symbolic scenes. Various plans were also drawn up for the construction of the facade tower, so that the design of architects Louis Roelandt and his son-in-law L. Van Overstraeten was not started until 1849. In 1860 it had been raised to the height of the dials. The tower was only completed in 1896 to a design by architect Jules Goethals (Aalst). Among other things, he replaced the tower cap with a gilded dome on which a monumental Madonna statue (6 meters high) designed by Frans Van Havermaet (Sint-Niklaas) and executed in gilded copper plate by L. Van Rijswijck (Antwerp).
Inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be
The church was built and commissioned around the middle of the 19th century, between 1841 and 1844. However, it was not completely finished until in 1896 the six meter high gilded statue of Mary, designed by Frans Van Havermaet, on the approximately 50 meter high tower was placed. According to tradition, the priest was then impressed by the statue of the Virgin Mary on the tower of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille.
The statue, popularly also called Maria Vergult or Miet Verguld, has already been removed from the church twice for restoration, the first time in 1947 and a second time twenty years later, in 1967. In 2021, the statue will be for a third be restored once.
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