{"id":38027,"date":"2021-05-27T13:32:07","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T11:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/topa.be\/sint-carolus-borromeus\/kennismaking\/"},"modified":"2021-07-19T13:40:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T11:40:33","slug":"kennismaking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/topa.be\/en\/sint-carolus-borromeus\/kennismaking\/","title":{"rendered":"SCB A brief survey"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Saint Charles Borromeo church<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A brief survey<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Dear visitor, welcome to our beautiful baroque parish church. Although in the course of time this monu\u00adment has seen a great deal of upheaval, it has always remained a true temple of art. It is, more than any other church, a real Rubens church; not only did P.P. Rubens create a lot of paintings for this church, but he also designed a number of decorative sculptures for it. No wonder its fame stretches far and wide\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2022 History<\/strong><\/p>\n

This classic example of baroque architecture is built during the years 1615 \u2013 1621 by order of the, at that time, very fer\u00advent Jesuit Order. The building plans are drawn up by members of the order it\u00adself: firstly by the rector Fran\u00e7ois d\u2019Aguilon, and later on by friar Pieter Huyssens.<\/p>\n

In 1773 the Jesuit Order ceases to exist by order of the pope, who has bowed under the pressure of a number of secular leaders who somehow or other are bothered by these learned, wise clergymen. All over the world, Jesuit goods are confiscated and publicly auctioned. Some years later, under the patronage of the holy bishop Charles Borromeus, their church here in Antwerp has a change of use: it becomes a chapel for catechism. It is this model saint of catechism who will give his name to the church when, with the concordat of 1803, it becomes an independent parish church. Under the Dutch government, King William wants to offer it to the Protestants, but he doesn\u2019t reckon with the Catholic majority. Promptly the loyal parishioners launch a campaign to raise money, through which they succeed in buying their church.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Square<\/strong><\/p>\n

The entire design of this beautiful square has been the realization of the Jesuits. This is the place where they used to have their headquarters in the Flemish province. Since c.1555 the fathers have gradually expanded the territory of their pastoral activities in Antwerp, with, as their major achieve\u00adment, the building of a secondary school. In 1614 several houses and even a (small) street were demolished in order to build this new baroque complex. As the new monastery was built around a square with an open character, we can imagine a really modern urban development in the medieval network of streets<\/p>\n

\u2022 The facade (\u21d2\u00a0A)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The impressive facade has been directly based on the order\u2019s mother-church in Rome: the \u2018Ges\u00f9\u2019 (which had already been built forty years earlier). Similar to any other baroque building, the facade of the church tries to catch the passerby\u2019s attention by every means possible such as:<\/p>\n