Our Blessed Lady of Zavel Church

The Notre -Dame du Sablon (French ) or Onze Lieve - Vrouw - th Sablon (Dutch ) (sometimes Notre -Dame des Victoires ) is situated in Brussels, Sablon / Sablon Square sacred building.

The Gothic church has since the 14th century, a statue of the Madonna, which was for her eponymous. The church was in the 16th century grave lay the Habsburg postmaster, the princely at the end of the 17th century Thurn and Taxis.

History

Today Brussels neighborhood Sablon / Sablon was in the 13th century no more than a large sandy area that served as a burial ground. In 1304 the Guild of Crossbowmen built a chapel here. After one stolen from an Antwerp church and allegedly miraculous statue had been erected in the chapel in 1348, it became a magnet for believers who could get generous donations of the chapel.

This was announced in the Guild of Crossbowmen at the start of the 15th century, the occasion for it to replace the chapel by a new and larger religious building. First, the south transept and the first two pillars of the nave were built, and then followed the north transept and the choir, as well as the longitudinal vessels, which were at the beginning of the 16th century extended again. The massive retaining walls suggest that the construction of the tower was intended. When, after the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 riots broke out, the construction work came to a standstill. It was only under the reign of Philip the Fair, work on the aisles and on the main portal were continued. The Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Margaret of Austria, the church felt very connected, and initiated there in 1530 a large procession to you for relief from the plague which had ravaged Brussels.

At the end of the 16th century Calvinism found its way, the church was closed, but suffered beyond by protecting the military guilds little among the religious unrest. Under the French rule in the late 18th century it was briefly deconsecrated and closed in 1803 but put back the house of God in operation.

In the 19th century, the church has undergone a thorough renovation. First, in 1878 the cultivated buildings were demolished, followed by successively restored by the architect Schoy, Jean Van Ysendyck and Maurice Van Ysendyck the church building until the work was completed in 1907 with the restoration of the south portal.

Pope Pius XI. appointed Notre -Dame du Sablon on 12 September 1929 for Offizial Church, founded in 1926 Belgian Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy grave in Jerusalem.