Saint Mary Magdalene Church

In 1843, the Royal Commission for Monuments rejected the plans for the expansion and restoration of the old church and advised the construction of a new parish church. The requested improvements to the design by architect P. Declercq (Erondegem) did not meet the commission's approval; to avoid further delays, the Royal Commission for Monuments created a plan in 1847 based on the original design but with altered details. The neo-Gothic church was erected between 1848 and 1850. The new church was consecrated on July 24, 1851. The painting of the interior was done in neo-Gothic style; supervision of the placement of appropriate neo-Gothic furniture took place in the latter half of the 19th century. New church windows were installed in 1888 and 1890. The painting of the choir and side chapels was done in 1894 by J. Van den Bossche (Sint-Martens-Lierde). The interior portal was doubled in 1896. Phased painting works of the interior occurred in 1949 and 1954. Restoration work took place from 1981 to 1982 under the direction of architecture firm Bressers (Gent), which included renewing the roof, facade works such as repointing and restoring brick facing, renewing windows, refreshing stained glass windows, and new clock faces for the tower. The interior restoration included the painting in 1986.

A modest brick church with a straightforward symmetrical layout, oriented unusually to the south, and a facade with a tower dominating the church square. The three-nave church consists of seven bays, with a largely embedded square west tower; the choir, which is the same width and height as the nave, has one bay with a three-sided closure, flanked within the choir arches by a small sacristy (to the north) and a storage room (to the south). The nave has narrow side aisles under a single slate gable roof. The use of natural stone is limited to sandstone for the base, hard stone for window tracery, and some decorative accents on the tower: framing with a cross of the pointed-arched portal, arch decorations, crowning of the flanking buttresses, and pointed-arch frieze below the crowning of the twisted tower spire. A stone statue of Saint Mary Magdalene sits in a niche on the middle tower level. High pointed-arch windows in the flat side aisles and the choir. The base of the choir front retains painted purgatory and a text banderol from a removed calvary.

The plastered and painted church interior features neo-Gothic polychromy, stylistically harmonizing with typical neo-Gothic furnishings. Ribbed vaulting on columns; high capitals decorated with palmettes. Black marble floor tiles, white marble star motif in the choir floor.

Furnishings: 19th-century paintings "Saint Cornelius Pope" and "Repentant Saint Mary Magdalene" (incorporated into both side altars). A wooden calvary group from the 18th century, originally from the disappeared St. Gertrude Chapel, now decapitated and without a cross. Polychrome wooden statue of Saint Cornelius Pope from the 19th century. Late 19th-century polychrome saint statues on similarly ornamented consoles, including: Saint Joseph and St. Barbara by P. Verloo (Zottegem), Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Donatus by Mathias Zens, Saint Aloysius from Van Biesbroeck (Gent). Neo-Gothic main altar with a marble table from 1851; late 19th-century wooden retable with polychrome figures and reliefs by Th. De Bruycker (Gent). Neo-Gothic wooden side altars. Choir stalls from 1890, neo-Gothic, by Th. De Bruycker (Gent). Churchwarden benches from 1892, neo-Gothic, by P. Verloo (Zottegem). Incomplete neo-Gothic wooden communion bench from 1890 by Th. De Bruycker, with some parts incorporated into the altar (no longer in use). Wooden pulpit from 1778 by Fl. Florent (Aalst) with a statue of Mary Magdalene under the bowl. Four equally sized neo-Gothic confessionals, of which one pair is from 1895 by P. Verloo.

15th-century stone baptismal font with a copper lid. Framed Stations of the Cross painted on canvas, from 1887 by A. Van Den Eijcken. Neo-Gothic figurative colored stained glass windows from 1890 in the choir and side chapels. Two fine neo-Gothic copper chandeliers and two matching wall lights with fixtures.

Organ from 1886 by F. De Campenaere (Mechelen). Restored and modified by C. Bourguignon (Geraardsbergen-Overboelare), 1904. Organ case in neoclassical style. Neo-Gothic choir loft from 1906 by P. Verloo (Zottegem).

Rudy Wuyts