Eglise Collegiate - Collegiate Church of Dinant

The collegiate church (or chapter) of Our Lady of Dinant (in French: Collégiale Notre-Dame) dates from the 13th century. It is an example of the Maas Gothic in the Principality of Liège. The building is made entirely of gray Dinant limestone.

Architecturally , a collegiate or collegiate congregation differs from a non-collegiate congregation in that seats must be reserved in the presbytery of the church for the canons, up to 60 or 70 for larger chapters . For this reason a collegiate church, such as a monastery church, usually has a wide choir with space for the choir stalls on both sides.

The church was originally built as an oratory. Later the building was significantly expanded. In 934 the Romanesque-style church received the status of a collegiate church. A Romanesque-style church was built there in the 10th century , but was destroyed in 1227 when a protruding boulder fell. 36 people died in the process. Only the Romanesque north portal has survived. The church was rebuilt in the Maas Gothic style.

Two centuries later, in 1466, disaster struck again. When Dinant was sacked by Charles the Bold, the building was destroyed by floods, fires and looting.

It was not until 1566 that it received its very unusual bell tower in the shape of a pear , which characterizes the image of Dinant today. This bell tower was originally intended for the town hall.

stained glass window

The church's large window - said to be one of the largest in Europe - was installed in 1902 by Ghent master Gustave Ladon . The work is inspired by 13th-century stained glass. Large medallions of different parts, depicting the life of the Virgin , and small circles, depicting the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, alternate. This fresco is decorated with the image of the creation of the world and the coronation of the Virgin . The alternation between narrative elements, the life of the Virgin Mary and the emblematic portraits aims to inscribe Mary's destiny in the history of salvation. He made me from the beginning (Sirac, 29:4): the Virgin is already present in God's plan.

There is a painting by Antoine Wiertz entitled On se retrouve au ciel (We will meet again in heaven). He dedicated this picture to his parents as a kind of rendezvous with them in the afterlife.

Bust with reliquary of Sant Perpetu:

This remarkable piece, made by the goldsmith of Ath Philippe Lenoir in 1621 , contains the skull of Saint Perpetuus, the city's patron saint. Perpetu was bishop of Maastricht. He dedicated himself to the city of Dinant and died there in 617. He is buried in the small church of Sint-Vincentius. In the 11th century the body was transferred to the collegiate church and buried in a shrine that disappeared during the Revolution. However, his head was deposited in another silver reliquary in the 17th century, protected from the revolutionaries thanks to the zeal of two residents of Dinant. Until the 1960s , the bust was carried in procession through the streets of Dinant on August 15th.

Willem Vandenameele