Collegiate Church of Sant'Ursmaro

The collegiate church of St. Ursmar is the oldest church in Belgium. Located in the municipality of Lobbes, it was built in the ninth century by the monks of the abbey of Lobbes to house the bodies of the abbots, including that of Sant'Ursmaro. Initially, at the end of the seventh century, the disciples of Saint Landelino had erected a modest wooden chapel. In 698 St. Ursmar, abbot of Lobbes, erected where today is the collegiate, an oratory dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which would house the numerous relics of saints in possession of the abbey. Between 819 and 823 the abbot Fulrado built, where the oratory stood, a new church, which was dedicated to St. Ursmar and in whose crypt there are still the tombstones of the abbots of Lobbes and in particular the original sarcophagi of the two successors of St. Landolino: St. Ursmar, who died in 713, and St. Herminius, successor of Ursmar, who died in 737. Also buried is Raterio of Verona, a monk of Lobbes who became bishop of Liège.

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