Holy Cross Chapel

The Sainte-Croix chapel. Classified as a monument since July 6, 1976 At the top of a spur, stands the oldest religious monument in the town. Part of it dates back to the sixteenth century (before 1550). In 1616 the oratory was transformed to make it more spacious. It consists of a nave with three-sided chevet and its roof bears an elegant bell tower. Inside we can see a baroque altar of the seventeenth century, a communion bench of 1656 and an iron rod which, according to legend, was brought back by a crusader and would represent the exact height of Christ (1.94 m). So named because this chapel housed a relic of the true cross, brought from Rome by an ancestor of Arnould de Hornes, lord of Braine-le-Château. The silver reliquary that contained this parcel was stolen in 1935. Mass is celebrated once a year, in May, on the Sunday following the 3rd, Feast of the Invention (discovery) of the Holy Cross. A seventeenth-century painting placed above the altar recalls this miracle. All this if the chapel is open of course, which is not often the case.

Val et Oli