Sint-Pietersbandenkerk Uitbergen

Village church surrounded by its oval partly hedged cemetery. Planted on the eastern street side behind a redeveloped square with leilinden to the left and right of the cemetery entrance and parallel to the cemetery wall.
Very little is known about the earliest history. Originally, Uitbergen and Overmere formed one parish with Uitbergen as the mother church. The assignment to Saint Peter points to an ancient origin. Since 1177, the patronage of the church belonged to the Ghent Saint Bavo Abbey, then to the bishop of Ghent. A visitation report by Bishop Van Eersel from 1762 shows that the church was in poor condition and the bishop agreed to the renewal. In 1778 the new nave was consecrated in Louis XVI style. Postcards from around 1900 show this church with tower, choir and one wide nave of five bays with arched windows and a Louis XVI portal in the west façade.
In 1899, pastor Van de Maele, together with the Visart de Bocarmé family, lord of the castle and mayor of Uitbergen, began to work for a larger church. In 1904 it was allowed to demolish the too small beech and replace it with a larger one. Mandatory preservation and restoration of the old crossing tower and the Gothic choir which were recognized by the Royal Commission as a monument of the third class in 1905. Plan and specifications drawn up by architect Julius Goethals (Aalst) in 1904. The Visart de Bocarmé family were recognized as benefactors; As a result, it was allowed to erect a grandstand for them. Tender on 5 March 1906 to contractor Lodewijk Pérau (Ledeberg) followed by the start of the works on 22 July 2006. Provisional consecration of the church on November 10, 1907. From 1908 installation of new furniture. Completed on 02.03.1909.
Repairs after war damage carried out under the direction of architect P. Bourgeois (Ghent) in 1951. Completely repainted in 1971, eliminating most of the neo-Gothic polychromy. Restoration work on the roof under the direction of engineer-architect H. Van Sande in 1994 and exterior restoration under the direction of architect Ph. Pauwels (Kortrijk) from 2003.
Present partly neo-Gothic and Gothic church with preserved square Romanesque tower base probably ascending to the 11th-12th centuries and an octagonal bell room from the 13th or early 14th century. The choir, built from large blocks of Ledian limestone, dates from the 14th-15th centuries. Neo-Gothic nave, transept, sacristy and salvage from 1904-1908.
The plan unfolds a three-aisled nave of four bays with a protruding portal, flanked on the right by a round stair tower. Straight enclosed transept arms of two bays, choir of one bay preceded by former crossing with tower on square base, and with five-sided chancel closure; straight closed side choirs of one bay. A sacristy and the former grandstand of the lords of the castle flank the choir. Built of yellow brick (Zandvoorde) with sandstone for plinth, capstones, water moldings, window frames and traceries, Ledische limestone for the Gothic choir and brick tower. Covering slate saddle and lectern roofs and high constricted eight-sided needle spire above the tower. West façade with high gable on shoulder pieces and crowning cross, propped up by heavy cut corner buttresses. Central basket arch gate in profiled frame under water frame. Flanking narrow pointed arch windows with three-lobe tracery. Wraparound water frame and high spigot-arched skylight with three-tiered neo-Gothic tracery. Above it narrow window and clockwork. On the right, leaning round stair tower with door on the south side, under slate conical roof. Receiving aisles with pointed arch window and delineating cut buttresses. North and south façade rhythmed by buttresses and pointed arch windows with two-tiered neo-Gothic tracery; round oculi with tracery as skylights. Transept arms propped up by buttresses and finished by gabled gables on shoulder pieces. Similar three-tiered pointed arch window under wraparound water table. Narrow window in the top and oculi in the side facades of the transept. Old square-base crossing tower with octagonal bell chamber with slightly pointed-arched gallows holes with profiled brick day sides. Transition from square to eight-sided articulation by means of chamfered triangles lined with natural stone.
New side choirs built against the old crossing tower under separate gable roofs and finished with a gabled gable. Against the south side choir built sacristy on basement with barred windows. Heavy buttresses at the corners. Equipped with a barred three-light and two windows in the east façade. Entrance door on the raised ground floor between sacristy and choir, with lateicon soles and spherical skylight. Against the north side choir built former stand for the lords of the castle. High choir propped up by heavy cut buttresses and broken by five high pointed arch windows with two-tiered Gothic tracery. Wraparound water frame and scaffolding holes closed with grids under the hanging gutter.
Plastered and now white painted interior. Wide central nave and narrow aisles separated by pointed arched arches on stocky natural stone columns with moulded capital on octagonal plinth. Vaulting with cross rib vaults resting on consols. Vaulted surfaces of yellow brick delineated by sintered bricks and ribs of natural stone, around the key enriched with a polychrome painting. Similar vault with O-bell hole in the old tower. Choir with plastered and white painted beam vault with the same polychromy around the key. Pointed arch windows with three figurative stained glass windows by J. Casier, placed in 1911.
Mobilair: Sculpture: Four statues on baroque pedestals with inscription: Saint Anthony abbot with pig, 17th century, modern polychromy, wood; Saint Godelieve, 17th or 18th century, modern polychromy, wood; Saint Peter, 17th century(?), modern polychromy, stone(?); Saint Anne and Mary, 17th century(?), modern polychromy, stone. Neo-Gothic polychrome plaster statues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sacred Heart of Mary, Our Lady Immaculate Conception, Saint Teresa, Saint Rita, Saint Joseph with Baby Jesus, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Anthony of Padua. Main altar with altarpiece by A. De Beule (Ghent) from 1912, (copy of the initial altar of 1910 destroyed by fire at the Brussels World Exhibition in 1910); scenes from the life of Saint Peter: The Miraculous Fishing, Jesus hands Saint Peter the keys, an angel frees Peter from prison and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter; tabernacle with symbols of the evangelists, neo-Gothic, gilded oak with copper ciborium by L. Geeraert, stone altar table; north side altar dedicated to Our Lady, neo-Gothic altarpiece with statue by E. Van den Eynde, oak, polychromed, stone altar table, 1909; south side altar dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot, neo-Gothic altarpiece with statue of Antony with pig by E. Van den Eynde, oak, polychromed, altar table in white natural stone, 1909; current altar with reused balustrade of the stand of the Visart de Bocarmé family, designed by architect J. Goethals in 1907 and executed by L. Pérau in 1909. Choir stalls, neo-Gothic, oak, 1911 by E. Van den Eynde (Ghent). Communion bench, forged iron and copper, 1908, design by E. Van den Eynde (Ghent) executed by Ed. De Vooght (Bruges). Pulpit, neo-Gothic, oak, 1908, by van E. Van den Eynde (Ghent), panels on cockpit depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. Confessionals, neo-Gothic, oak, by E. Van den Eynde, 1910. Organ of 1880 by Petrus Vereecken (Gijzegem) replacing the organ of 1832 by Fr. Loret (Dendermonde), organ case with inscription: "Dono dedit/ C.L. Verbeke", "Laudate Dominum/ in organo", "anno", "1880". Baptismal font, marbled wooden base and copper lid, formerly in northwest corner, closed by a fine iron fence. Stations of the Cross, neo-Gothic, polychrome plaster in high relief, from 1909 by A. De Beule.

Stichting Open Kerken