Saint Bartholomew's Church

Parish church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. South-oriented reconstruction church from 1923-1925. Against the church walls, four tombstones of former pastors have been preserved, which is a remnant of the pre-war cemetery. Also, a war memorial for the civilian and military victims of both World Wars. Partially surrounded by park landscaping with a water element, bordered by linden trees, access path highlighted by a long bench and linden trees. The landscaping was done in 2004 according to the design of the engineering firm Ch. Lobelle (Sint-Andries, Bruges).

History of the church

According to the cartulary of the Abbey of Ename, there was a place of prayer in Kortemark before 1085. In that year, the Abbey of Ename received the provostship over the churches of Handzame and Kortemark. In 1286, several monks from Ename resided in the area. During the iconoclasm in 1566, the church was destroyed for the first time, with only the walls remaining upright. The church was rebuilt, and in 1571 the Bishop of Bruges consecrated five altars in Kortemark: the main altar dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the other altars to Our Lady, Saint Anne, Saint Sebastian, and Saint Blaise. Around 1580, the church was again destroyed by the Geuzen.

Circa 1610, the reconstruction started using yellow flat bricks from the Iron region. The old - possibly 15th-century - crossing tower in white stone, called the "pepper shaker," was preserved. Financial problems delayed the reconstruction. In 1642, two altars were consecrated, the main altar dedicated to Saint Bartholomew (the current patron saint of the church), and the other altar to Our Lady.

Most likely, the third choir was still in ruins at that time. The church was only fully completed around 1650. In 1797 (French period), the church was temporarily closed because the pastor did not want to swear allegiance to the Republic. The church suffered greatly from plundering soldiers and fell into disrepair.
In 1847, a wall was built around the cemetery. In 1848-1849, the church was rebuilt slightly to the west according to the design of architect and provincial architect Pierre Buyck (Bruges, 1805-1877). The original crossing tower was retained, now serving as the west tower. In 1854-1859, the sacristy was enlarged by the same architect. In 1877-1880, the tower was restored and consolidated according to the design of architect A. Verbeke (see archive Royal Commission for Monuments and Landscapes).

During the First World War, the 18th-century pulpit and a baroque painting from the main altar were secured in the tower of Saint Peter's church in Torhout. These artworks were lost during the dynamiting of this tower in 1918. In 1917, the Kortemark church tower was blown up, partially destroying the rest of the church as well. By the end of the First World War, the Saint Bartholomew's church was completely in ruins, with only a piece of the arcade and several wall sections still standing.

In 1923-1925, a neo-Gothic hall church with three naves and a 52-meter-high tower was erected according to the design of master builder Thierry Nolf (Torhout). The church was not built on the old site, but slightly further north. There are two reasons for this: on one hand, the new location allows for a larger church, and on the other hand, the old church stood on raised earth which had already shown large cracks before the war. The new church also bears no resemblance to the pre-war church. In 1925, the stained glass windows were installed by the Ghent firm Coppejans. A wooden crucifix that hung under a little roof on the church's outer wall before the First World War was secured during the war and has hung in the church since 1999.

A new cemetery was established on Torhoutstraat. The old cemetery around the church (for remnants, see Markt without number) remains neglected for ten years due to expropriation issues. The railings on brick pedestals from the pre-war cemetery have been partially reused around the rectory after the war.

Description of the church

The floor plan reveals: a three-nave hall church of seven bays and eight bays for the central nave, with double transept arms and three-sided apsidal extension. Side aisles with flat endings. The square tower under a six-sided spire is located in an unconventional place, namely in the northern angle between the central nave and the western aisle. A five-sided volume in the northern angle between the central nave and the eastern aisle serves as a baptistery. At the level of the northern bays of the aisles, a slightly projecting, rectangular entrance portal. The northern bay of the central nave is elaborated as an entrance portal. South of the western aisle is a rectangular sacristy of four bays.

Materials. The use of different types of stone (colored brick, blue hard stone for the friezes, continuous water tables, window sills, and bases of the stories) accentuates the neo-Gothic design. Use of Euville stone and blue hard stone for decoration, covering stones, drip lists, and cordon lists. Natural slate for roofing.

Exterior

Three-nave ship and double transept under gable roofs. North facade of the central nave consisting of a gable with shoulder pieces and on the corners perpendicular, tapering buttresses, pointed-arch doorway under a drip list, three pointed-arch windows. North facade of the western aisle with a pointed-arch triplet window. Side facades rhythmically arranged with pointed-arch triplet windows under drip lists, cordon list, and tapering buttresses. At the level of the northern bay, there is an entrance portal with a gable provided with shoulder pieces, and a pointed-arch doorway under an oculus with trefoil tracery. Eastern and western facades of transept arms designed as gables with shoulder pieces and angled, tapering buttresses, pierced by two pointed-arch paired windows and a round oculus with trefoil tracery under a drip list.

Square tower body with three horizontal sections: the ground floor with each time a rectangular window opening under a lintel and pointed-arch relieving arch, the second section with paired pointed-arch blind windows containing simple tracery, the third section with two pointed-arch bell openings on each side under a blue hard stone drip list. Each section is accented by wide continuous cordon lists, at the top a continuous pointed-arch brick frieze. Tapering, perpendicular buttresses at the corners.

Five-sided baptistery under a half-tent roof with tapering buttresses at the corners, two pointed-arch windows and double cordon lists.
Apsid with tapering buttresses at the corners, pointed-arch triplet windows, continuous cordon list.

Sacristy under a gable roof, side facades designed as gables with shoulder pieces. At the corners, angled tapering buttresses. Rectangular window openings with a middle style under segmented relieving arches, set in a pointed-arch niche. Wooden windows with stained glass infill, security bars. Continuous cordon list.

Interior

Plastered and white-painted walls with brick window and door frames, ribbed arches, and pointed-arch frieze. Wooden ribbed vault with polychrome (red and blue) ribs and tie beams. Blue hard stone columns with knob capitals on octagonal bases. At the level of the crossing, higher bundled pillars. Black natural stone tiles and smaller cement tiles at the level of the side choirs.

Entrance portal with unplastered walls under profiled beam coffered ceiling, white and black natural stone tiles in a checkerboard pattern, segmented doorway to the tower.

Ground floor tower space with terracotta tile floor, barrel vaults, and brick walls. Dossal with wooden balustrade.
Sacristy with plastered walls, white and black tiles in a checkerboard pattern, and a simple black marble fireplace. Doors in pitch pine with letter panels.

Stained glass windows signed "HENDRIK COPPEJANS/ GENT 1925". Depiction of various saints and biblical scenes in the traditional academic style.

Furniture

Pulpit from around 1920 with symbols of the Evangelists on the sounding board, including Saint Mark and Christ the Teacher. The statue of Our Lady of Edewalle (Our Lady of Comfort with Child), set in a radiant crown, dates from around 1500 and comes from the hamlet of "Edewalle" (see Pastor D. Vanhautestraat). Around 1817, the statue was donated to the church by the Gilles de Pelichy family (descendants of Huerne). During the construction of a chapel in Edewalle in 1869-1871, the statue returned to that hamlet. Since the reconstruction period of the 1920s, the statue has been back in the church of Kortemark.

Statue of Jesus on the cross circa 1930. Gilded bust of Saint Bartholomew, the patron saint of the church, in an ornate wooden cabinet to the left of the altar. This bust was donated in 1954 by representatives of the 10th Line Regiment in memory of the liberation of Kortemark in 1918.

In 1848, an organ was built by Ch.-L. Van Houtte (Waregem). In 1898, an extensive work was carried out by Fr. Joris (Ronse), either a new construction or a reconstruction of the Van Houtte organ. This instrument was destroyed during the First World War. After the reconstruction of the church, a new(?) organ was installed. The current instrument by the firm Jos. Loncke & Sons (Esen, Diksmuide) dates from 1963. It is possible that a small amount of material from the organ of around 1925 was recovered for this new organ.

Inventory of Relics from the First World War in the Westhoek (Province of West Flanders, "War and Peace in the Westhoek", and Ministry of the Flemish Community, Department of Monuments and Landscapes, 2002-2006).

Flemish Institute for Heritage, Documentation Center, Maps and Plans K.C.M.L., number 387.

Flemish Institute for Heritage, Archive of organ inventory.

Information Mr. Marcel Werbrouck.

JACOBS M., They who fell as heroes... Inventory of the war memorials of the two World Wars in West Flanders, Part 2, Bruges, 1996, p. 191.

My village in Krekedal. Handzame-Kortemark-Works-Zarren, Kortemark-Handzame, 1978, s.p. (iconography)

NOTEBAERT A., NEUMANN C. et al., Inventory of the archive of the Service for Devastated Regions, General State Archive, Brussels, 1986.

ROOSE B., Photorepertory of the furniture of Belgian pilgrimage sites, Province West Flanders (3rd department) 1817-1879, Brussels, 2001, p. 243-244.

ROOSE-MEIER B., VERSCHRAEGEN H., Photorepertory of the furniture of Belgian pilgrimage sites, Canton Torhout, Ministry of Dutch Culture Royal Institute for Artistic Heritage, Brussels, 1976, p. 24.

STEVENS M., Archival images of Kortemark, Brussels, 2000, p. 17, 20, 31, 47, 50, 62 (iconography).

VERHAEGHE M., From the past of Kortemark, Bruges, 1953, p. 138-154.

WERBROUCK M., The parish of Kortemark from its early beginnings to the First World War. Its church, its priests, and its believers, in Yearbook of the historical circle "Crekel Beke", Kortemark, 1992 p. 171-203.

WERBROUCK M., DEMAREE J. et al., The Great War in Krekedal Part I 1914-1916, in Yearbook of the historical circle "Crekel Beke", Kortemark, 1999, p. 8 (iconography).

WERBROUCK M., DEMAREE J. et al., The Great War in Krekedal Part II 1917-1920, in Yearbook of the historical circle "Crekel Beke", Kortemark, 2000, p. 19, 21, 26, 39 (iconography).

www.westhoek.be

Source: BAERT S. & VANNESTE P. in cooperation with CREYF S., DEVOOGHT K., GHERARDTS F. & MOEYKENS S. 2008: Inventory of architectural heritage, Province of West Flanders, Municipality of Kortemark, Part I: Sub-municipalities Kortemark and Handzame, Part II: Sub-municipalities Works and Zarren, Building through the centuries in Flanders WVL40, unpublished working documents.
Authors: Vanneste, Pol; Baert, Sofie
Date: 2008
The text is made available by: Agency for Immovable Heritage

Joris Broché