St. Peter's Church (Rotselaar)

The origin of St. Peter's Church is situated in the 10th or 11th century. However, the current church building dates from 1848. The old Gothic church was almost completely demolished and a neo-Gothic building was erected on the basis of the plans of the Brussels architect Joseph Dumont. Brick was mainly used for this, but wall plinths and window frames are made of iron sandstone.

But there are some interesting stories to tell about iron sandstone here. For example, the current tower envelops the old tower that was built in iron sandstone. And about the origin of the ice sandstone and the work, the following egeweten: between 1844-1846 quarries were opened again in front of the church on the Middelberg. Three quarters of the stones came from this quarry of the Duke of Arenberg. The remaining part came from the quarry in Wezemaal. To give an idea of the extent of the extraction, we can tell that from February to September 1844 a total of 30 stonemasons were active, purely for chopping off the stone. The daily wage was 1.25 francs per day, which was not bad at the time. The further processing and custom felling was done by Walloon stonemasons. There were hardly any stonemasons left in the Hageland who mastered this craft. That this work was done very intensively is evident from the fact that between 18 and 30 November 1844 – so for two weeks – 42 stonemasons worked in Rotselaar. The local blacksmith was committed to constantly sharpening and repairing the stone chisels.

Jan Rymenams