St. Martin's Church (Wezemaal)

When you know that when the imposing one was built, the village only had about 500 souls, you wonder who could afford such a building. The explanation is simple. In the 15th century, Wezemaal was an internationally known pilgrimage site of Saint Job. Saint Job was revered for skin conditions and it is during this period that our regions are ravaged by syfillis.

As with the St. John the Baptist Church in Werchter, we also see here that the iron sandstone was mainly used in the choir from the 13th century. The tower, which was erected a few centuries later, around 1475, consists almost entirely of white sandstone. None other than Matheus de Layens, builder of the Leuven town hall, was involved in the construction.

The church was restored in 1965 by the well-known canon R.M. Lemaire. For this purpose, another quarry was opened on the Wijngaardberg. This was one of the last attempts to mine iron sandstone on site. Modern means were used and Lemaire himself once used the jackhammer.

Jan Rymenams