Stations of the Cross Celles - Va chemin, marche vers la lumière

From the collegiate church, a beautiful neo-Gothic way of the cross in blue stone leads up the hill to reach the hermitage of Saint-Hadelin.

The climb, interrupted by several sets of three steps, leads to the place where Saint Hadelin was installed in the 7th century and where he founded his monastery.

This beautiful Stations of the Cross , which connects the village center with l'Hermitage, was once used by the sisters of Saint-Vincent de Paul. This community lived in Ermitage Saint-Hadelin from 1858 to 1973. The sisters went to church 2 or 3 times a day to do their devotions and through the Stations of the Cross they could say their prayers along the way.

This stepped path, composed of fourteen traditional stations representing the main stages of Christ's crucifixion, was intended to give pilgrims the opportunity to ascend to the Hermitage and at the same time commemorate the Passion of Christ . However, until 2017 , for reasons unknown to everyone, these stations had never contained shows; they had always remained empty.

In 2017, a call was launched for artists to bring art to this heritage site so that the Stations of the Cross can finally be completed , several centuries after their construction. The Belgian artist Pierre Courtois was chosen to carry out this assignment.

The Stations of the Cross was restored and highlighted in 2018 by the artist Pierre Courtois, who added laser-cut and painted stainless steel plates . The Stations of the Cross are located near a Romanesque church and in Romanesque art, works of art have no literal or objective meaning.

The symbolism of the shapes is based on the symbol dictionary by Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant. Before they were geometric figures 'to measure the earth' , the circle, square and triangle were spatial forms that symbolized various features of the spiritual world. These geometric figures serve as the basis for the representation of the 14 stations.

Willem Vandenameele