Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Tenhemelopneming

The Basilica of Our Lady of Kortenbos is a famous pilgrimage church in Sint-Truiden. It is also a parish church for the surrounding communities.
 
The church thanks its origin to a statue of Mary. Several centuries ago, travellers were regularly attacked by brigands in the region. Elisabeth van Oeteren wanted to protect them and in 1636 she placed a statue of Our Lady in an oak tree on a lonely and empty place. In 1639 a chapel was built, which was named "Our Lady Nightingale at Kortenbos". Since then, the site was very popular with Mary worshipers. To cope with the great surge of religious people, the construction of a new baroque pilgrimage church was decided in 1641. The building plan was drawn by a Franciscan, Nicholas Ray. The church was consecrated in 1648, but during the following decades, it was extended with a portal, a transept and a tower, whose top has a lantern and corner turrets. These works were completed in 1725. Exactly two centuries later, the church received two side portals.
The outside of the church consists of simple brick walls, in which marlstone sometimes was inserted.
It is a single-aisled cruciform church with a nave of four bays, a transept of two bays, a chancel with a straight bay, an east tower and a sacristy. In the north and south side of the ship, slimline, round arched windows stand out, which accentuate the verticality of the church.
 
 

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