Eglise Saint-Charles-Borromée de Sedan

In 1591, King Henry IV of France allowed Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne to marry Charlotte de La Marck, heiress to the Duchy of Bouillon and the Principality of Sedan. Both were Protestant.

In 1593, the Prince of Sedan and Duke of Bouillon and his wife Charlotte de La Marck decided to build the Grand Temple neuf in Sedan. So a protestant temple.

Construction of the temple was completed in 1601. Then it was opened for Calvinist worship. The nave is covered with a barrel vault and a gallery has been built along the right aisle. It was used to receive the prince's family.

The temple was extended in 1608 with a grandstand along the left aisle. It was reserved for the nobility, the upper middle class and officers.

In 1685, with the Edict of Fontainebleau, the Edict of Nantes was abolished. The Reformed religion was banned in the kingdom of France.

In 1688, the Archbishop of Reims, Charles-Maurice Le Tellier, asked Robert de Cotte, who was visiting Sedan, to convert the temple into a church. Robert de Cotte drew up a plan for a Latin cruciform church. He had the apses destroyed and what was left of the temple turned into the nave of the new church. He had an inner mass added with two towers, a transept and a choir. The high altar was made by the king's sculptors, the tribunes were removed in 1690, and in 1692 the solemn consecration of the new parish church, dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo, who represented the Council of Trent, the founding element of the Counter-Reformation , has co-authored.

The large red marble frame once housed a painting of Saint Charles Borromeo who came to the aid of the plague victims in Milan, painted by a monk of Orval Abbey.

Willem Vandenameele