Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes

The chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes, also known as the 'Vulders Chapel', was built in 1863 as a faithful replica of the basilica of Lourdes. The client was Remi De Vulder, then mayor of Sint-Maria-Lierde, and his sisters, in gratitude for a favor received.
The chapel soon evolved into a small pilgrimage site, where the Ascension of Our Lord fair was celebrated 'at the Chapel' with a procession. During these flourishing days, the busy pilgrimage site consisted of a fairly large piece of land, closed off from the street by a high cast-iron fence, divided by fluted styles. The site was occupied by a brick neo-Gothic chapel built on two levels, the ground floor of which was hidden at the front behind an artificial grotto with rockwork. Via two lateral stairs, which together formed a horseshoe-shaped layout, one reached the chapel entrance on the upper floor, while accessing a small prayer space on the ground floor through an entrance incorporated into the grotto. The plot belonging to the chapel was originally occupied by benches and a procession path.
However, the chapel later fell into disrepair. No maintenance work was carried out anymore. After the death of the last direct descendants of the clients, the adjoining lands were subdivided (see also Dorpstraat number 26).
Description
The fencing that originally separated the chapel from the street was removed during road widening. The prayer benches and procession paths have also disappeared, as have the stairs of the lateral accesses. The chapel is situated diagonally at the front of a deep plot, bordered by a brick wall along the footpath to Stuivenberg.
The prayer space on the ground floor, enclosed by an iron railing, is vaulted with a segmental arch and completely covered with glazed tiles that are crafted at the bottom, as a plinth, in a multicolored pattern between two friezes. Four pointed arch windows, built into the vault as pointed caps and also covered with white faience tiles, illuminate this space from the outside.
The chapel itself is almost entirely built of bricks and is divided by fairly narrow and flat buttresses, with granite offsets and a round, similarly capped plinth. Profiling and reveals around the windows and the entrance door are finished with plaster. The chapel is two bays long and has a three-sided closed choir closure, which has a pointed arch entrance at the back. The upper space is illuminated by narrow pointed arch windows, two on each side, while the apse has three, slightly lower openings. The cornice consists of a wooden gutter supported by small decorative corbels. The gable roof, covered with artificial slate, features a small wooden bell tower at the front with an eight-sided spire. The facade is divided by two stout buttresses between which the entrance door is located. This last is framed in a profiled surround under a pointed arch water table, combined with a keel arch with a cross flower. The somewhat heavy shoulder sections with corner entablatures masoned gable, which rises above the bell tower, is worked with tracery of trefoils inscribed in a triangle with convex sides and water tables.
Internally, the chapel is simple, especially after the wainscoting and the neo-Gothic altar were removed. The walls are plastered white, but at one of the windows, painted imitation white stone blocks can be seen. The chapel space is covered with a ribbed vault with boarding on profiled ribs.

https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/74264

Rudy Wuyts