St. Christopher's Church

St. Christopher's Church, beautiful, but unusually located on a hill. This location has everything to do with the relocation during the first half of^{the 13th} century from the old village center of the district "Het Hekken" (now: Nekkersput), where the -long since disappeared- St. Martin's Church stood, to its current location. The original 13th-century church building, which was initially isolated from the buildings, was a single-nave Romanesque hall church with a choir. Probably in the 17th^{century the} church was enlarged with two transepts and in the second half of the^18th century with a north aisle and a stone west tower. In the^19th century, a second aisle was added. The plan shows a Latin cross with a square western tower, a three-aisled nave, a projecting transept and a choir with three-sided closing, flanked by two sacristies. In the west façade, which was rebuilt in 1852, we can still see the keystone with the inscription "ANNO 1761" above the church door. Another major change dates from 1858 when a neo-Gothic choir with pointed arch windows and a calvary, now gone, facing east, was added. The many renovations gave the church its current neo-Gothic appearance. Inside, the combination of styles and materials gives this church a special charm. In the oval cemetery that surrounds the place of worship, we find, in addition to interesting interwar graves, also older and recent memorial plaques on the church wall, but most striking is the imposing grave of pastor Carolus Boeykens (°1825 - † 1908), a bluestone coffin placed in the niche of the locked mortuary door.

Saint Christopher has been venerated in this parish since time immemorial. It is possible that the proximity of the Dender and the presence of a spring is a starting point for the fact that this saint was chosen as the patron of the church. Legend has it that the giant Reprobus carried people on his broad back across the river. One day there was a little child standing there. The giant took it on his shoulders, the water rose, the child grew heavier and heavier, and Reprobus almost succumbed. Arriving on the other shore, the child turned out to be Christ himself. He said that he was so heavy because he carried the burden of the whole world. Jesus Christ baptized the giant in the river and gave him the baptismal name Christophorus (Christopher), which means Christ bearer... Saint Christopher, who was removed from the calendar of saints by the Vatican in 1969 but remained very popular, was invoked against thunderstorms, hail, tooth and headaches and against an impenitent and sudden death. Later, dangerous glands and growths, plague, cholera, fire, ulcers, and finally, lightning were added. When the Confrerie was founded in 1937, protection against possible accidents on the road was added.

Pollare has quite a thing for Christmas: at Christmas time, a remarkably large nativity scene (B) fills the entire choir. It is an initiative from 1950 by the zealous pastor Claus who also had the Kristoffel statue placed on the corner of the "Plaatsberg", the hill leading to the church, and had the large Mary Chapel Mother of God built on the Echel.

Since the mid-1990s there has been the well-attended cozy Christmas market, a number of times there has been a nativity scene exhibition and since 2020 there has been a unique nativity scene from 1902 permanently in the church, transferred from the closed St. Anne's Church in Ghent.

Toerisme Ninove