St. Anthony's Church

Parish Church of St. Anthony

Oriented, classicist hall church from 1759-1760 with walled (partly brick, partly rubble), surrounding cemetery. The church was protected as a monument by Decree of 10 January 1980, the organ by Decree of 21 August 1979. The church is also part of the townscape protected by Royal Decree of 10 January 1980 in the centre of Bollebeek.Before the twelfth century, Bollebeek was part of an old domain of the Abbey of Nivelles; according to J. Verbesselt, the abbey founded a parish dedicated to Our Lady here in the tenth century; In 1117, the abbey of Forest, daughter monastery of Affligem, acquired the right of patronage until the end of the ancien régime. According to an image from the map book of Forest of 1632, the church at the time probably had a Romanesque appearance with a small rectangular choir and a Romanesque tower. The present church was built in 1759-1760, presumably with the reuse of the sandstone from the old church for the tower and west façade. According to J. Ockeley, who relies on church accounts, it was a completely new building, presumably designed by the Brussels architect Carolus Everaert. On June 23, 1776, the church was solemnly consecrated. The floor plan shows a single-aisled nave of four bays with a built-in western tower and a three-sided choir closure with circumferential, later annexes including the sacristy and a storage room, built after 1860 as they are not yet present on the Popp map. The church was built entirely of brick with the use of white sandstone from Steenokkerzeel for the west façade, the tower, the substructure and the corner chains. Slate gable roof, three-sided above the choir.

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