Ancienne église Saint-Jacques - Namur

This building was a relay hospital for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela since the early 15th century .

From the 17th century onwards, this institution gradually became a night shelter, as it was outside the city walls , and occasionally a hospital for foreign soldiers , administered by the city magistrate. In 1755 it was bought by the Confrérie des Frères de la Miséricorde (Confraternity of Mercy), founded specifically to help those sentenced to death . It was abolished during the French Revolution and taken over by the Commission for Civil Almshouses, which sold the buildings in 1908 to the Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Montluçon, known in Namur as the Ladies of Saint-Jacques.

The Saint-Jacques Church is a classical building in brick and limestone built in 1756-1757 by the Confrérie des Frères de la Miséricorde (also known as the Confrérie de Saint-Jean Décollé). The building has a short nave with a street facade. In the axis an arch-shaped portal with concave split, with Louis XIV paneling and the image of Saint Jean Decollé in the lintel surrounded by four winged angel heads.

The interior is decorated with stuccowork, Ionic or Corinthian pilasters, cornices, low arches, cartouches and niches . Veiled vaults on doubleaux for the right bay and vaulted ceilings above the semicircle of the chancel.
To the right of the church is a semi-circular portal that leads to the buildings of the former hospital. In the wall there is a Gothic inscription that commemorates the foundation by Canon P. d'Elstenne († 1536) and a small Baroque bluestone monument from 1666 on either side of the coat of arms of Guillaume Vivenis.

The church, wedged between two houses on rue Saint Jacques, had been abandoned for 30 years. The religious building was deconsecrated a few years ago and renovated as a shop.

Willem Vandenameele