St Paul's Church Antwerp - Beautiful Blend of Brabantine Gothic & Flemish Baroque

St Paul’s Church in Antwerp is a fabulous symphony of Flemish Baroque embellishment and décor layered onto the bones of the original Gothic architecture.    

The current church which is located near the banks of the Scheldt River was built to replace a small church built by the Dominican order in 1276 to serve the sea faring community and its sailors.  The church was named after the patron saint of the Dominicans, St. Paul.

Design for the new church was begun in the early 16th century and was completed in 1571 when an attached monastery was also built.

The exterior was designed in the Brabantine Gothic style, which was the High Gothic style of the Low Countries of Flanders and was characterized by austere architecture with little exterior decoration, but it was not destined to retain its austere presence. 

Over the centuries, the church sustained great damage from the Dutch Calvinist revolts in 1578 when the Catholics lost control of the church, and a Spanish siege in 1584, when transept and choir materials were used as ballast in fire-ships. 

When the church came back under Catholic control after the Fall of Antwerp in 1584, a great campaign of rebuilding was begun.  It took many decades from 1605-1662 to complete the restoration, but the exuberant Flemish Baroque Interior is flamboyant and fabulous.

The tower was rebuilt in the late 17th century with a Baroque top. The baroque portal on the angled corner of the front of the church dates from 1734.

In the arch above the door is a tympanum sculpture by Jan Claudius de Cock (1734) depicting Our Lady of the Rosary giving the rosary to Saint Dominic and Catherine of Siena, the reformer of the Dominican Order.

Sadly, this was not the end of troubles for St Paul’s Church.  During the French Revolution, 1796, all Dominican monasteries in the Southern Netherlands were closed down on the order of the French occupiers. Fortunately, the church was sold publicly and bought by Dominican Prior Peltiers who saved the contents of the church.  You can see many of the church treasures in the Treasury just off the choir area.

In the 19th century, the church again sustained damage and lost all its original stained glass from bombardment during the Belgian Revolution.  In 1968 a fire again destroyed much of the church and monastery.  Local lore recounts the tale of local citizens risking their lives to save the priceless interior artwork. When I think about all this ruin and devastation over the centuries, I am amazed and so thankful that those who loved the beautiful art in this church saved and restored it for us to see today.

(Above) Altar of the Rosary - lower part by Sebastiaen de Neve, 1650,
upper part by Jean Pierre van Baurscheit I, 1650

(Above)The confessionals were executed around 1659 by Pieter Verbrugghen I,
with the assistance of his workshop and other sculptors.

(Above) High Altar 1670, Designed by Franciscus van Sterbeecke,
painting Descent from the Cross, 1807,by Cornelius Cels

Tomb of family de Vries-Van Elsacker - 1868
by Jean Baptiste de Boeck and Jean Baptiste van Wint

My favorite part of the church is actually on the outside in a courtyard area and consists of a group of statues referred to as a Calvary.  The courtyard is filled with statues of Apostles and Saints leading up to the crucified Jesus and a rock grotto.  It was created on the location of an ancient Dominican cemetery by two brothers named Van Ketwigh who were Dominican friars and its design dates from 1697.  In 1734 construction of the Calvary was completed but further additional statues were added up to 1747.

This Calvary statuary garden is a beautiful and thoughtful place to finish your visit to this fabulous St. Paul's Parish Church.