14.

The newest altar, the current service altar in the choir, was created by the Reverend Jos Vandemoortele in 1988. The image beneath the tabletop depicts the pilgrims to St. Emmaus. The entire structure is carved from French white stone. The altar was solemnly consecrated by Cardinal Danneels on December 10, 1988.

Standing before this altar and looking up, we see a mural against the choir arch.
This mural is by Adriën Bressers, based on a design by Jean-Batist Bethune.
The latter was the pioneer of the Neo-Gothic style. He lived from 1821 to 1894.
Bethune had gathered a team of skilled craftsmen around him who were the regular executors of his projects.
They settled in Sint-denijs-Westrem, where they lived together in a self-created Gothic village, modeled on medieval construction sheds. The image depicts the Coronation of Mary. She stands centrally with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

On the left and right, they are flanked by two angels. The angel on the left reads "Ave Maria Caelorum," or "Hail, Queen of Heaven."

The angel on the right displays the text "Ave Domina Angelorum," which means "Hail, Mistress of the Angels."

The painting has become visible again after an old layer of paint was removed. It still retains its original colors and was simply washed off. Only the white areas received a new coat of paint.

15.

Churches used to be built in the shape of a cross. A cross was also often hung at the boundary between the choir and the transepts. In the vaulted arch between the choir and the crossing, there were three large hooks.
The current crucifix was hung on these. It is an old oak crucifix. Its origins are unknown. It was attached to the mausoleum of the Erix family, which was the last grave to be removed from the old cemetery next to the church during our childhood.

16.

The memorial stone, which lies in front of the church's current main altar, was erected for the Erix family. He was a notary in Puurs at the end of the 19th century. He sponsored quite a few things in the church. He particularly paid for the marble steps in front of the altars, which until then had been made of wood.
It is a memorial stone, a kind of tribute to the sponsor and his family. It is not a headstone.

17.

The history of the organ

The first beginning, in 1722
The parish of Puurs, located in a region sometimes called "Little Brabant," traditionally belonged to the archdiocese of Mechelen. In the 18th century, before the separation of Kalfort, Breendonk, Oppuurs, Eikevliet , Tisselt , and Willebroek, the parish was much larger than it is today.

Pastor Verbrugghen wants to have an organ built for his church.

On October 7, 1722, he, together with the mayor and the clerk, began a tour through the entire ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Puurs to raise money to pay for the organ.

He had prepared well. In a small book (which has been preserved), he recorded all the households, including the number of adults ( communicantes : those eligible to receive communion) and the number of children (non- communicantes ).

He noted who had already contributed, who had promised to contribute, and so on. He had provided a specific symbol for each situation, probably to remind himself later of who had promised money but not yet contributed.

Artists at work in 1723
The organ was built by Ludovicus Delahaye , who would receive 2,125 florins for his work. Ludovicus , or Louis, is said to have been of Walloon origin, but was living in Ghent at the time.

The organ case was entrusted to the Dendermonde carpenter Henricus De Smedt. It was decorated with sculptures by the Antwerp artist Willem Ignatius Kerrickx. Their work was rewarded with a total of 2,875 guilders.

At the same time, these two artists built two more confessionals that once stood beneath the organ. These are the two confessionals that can still be admired at the left and right rears of the church.

The first organ
The organ was most likely an 8-foot single-manual instrument, which was installed as a balustrade organ in the then single- aisled church.

The organ, without its current pedestal, stood on the floor of the rood screen, and was enclosed on the left and right by the two outer panels of the current rood screen. In 1723, these panels were rotated 90 degrees in the opposite direction. The keyboard was at the back. This was known as back-wall playing.

Not much else is known about this first phase of the organ's construction. We only read somewhere that the pastor was extremely frustrated that the congregation frequently looked back during Mass to admire the organ.

He therefore promptly commissioned the construction of a majestic new high altar in 1724, again richly decorated by Kerrickx . The altar was so large that the three central windows of the chancel had to be bricked up.

It is not mentioned whether the churchgoers subsequently looked forward…

"A new church"
On May 30, 1742, the foundation stone for the new church was laid. In the old church, the crowd was often so tightly packed that someone regularly became unwell.

While the new outer walls are being built, the old church remains standing, and when the new walls are high enough, the old walls are demolished. Later, the church will be left "in the dry." This church would certainly have been higher than the previous one.

If you look closely at the organ, you will see that the sculpted arch between the two pipe towers of the organ no longer fits properly into the vault of this new church.

From that point on, the church archives show large gaps.

The first renovation mentioned in the archives dates back to 1795 and cost 750 guilders.

Analysis for the purpose of the restoration revealed a quantity of pipework that showed all the characteristics of work by the Dellahees from the late 18th century: it was therefore probably Dieudonné - Joseph Dellahee , who lived from 1725 to 18 hundred and 11, who renovated his father's work and, presumably, expanded it with a Positive, a second keyboard.

"After the French Revolution"
It is only from the first years after the French Revolution that information can be found again.

After the churches were closed for nearly five years under French rule, it was the Brussels organ builder Joannes Smets who made the organ playable again and maintained it annually from 1803 to 1818.

At the beginning of the 19th century, we see all sorts of smaller and larger works being carried out on the organ. For example, new bellows were being made.

It could be that the organ, originally built for a single- aisled church, did not have the power to handle a 3 to fill the nave with sound .

In 1820, the church council commissioned the organ, but again called upon the Antwerp organ-building family "Delhaye" (as they are now known). The work consisted of "... cleaning and repairing," and this was undertaken thoroughly, as it cost the considerable sum of 300 Brabant guilders.

The most radical renovation phase dates from 1843. At that time, new needs arose in the churches, including the function and location of the singers, which proved difficult to reconcile with the installation of a balustrade organ. Therefore, the organ case was removed from the balustrade, moved back approximately one and a half meters, and fitted with a base. This base was connected to the wider upper case via a cantilever . These interventions are attributable to Jean-Joseph Delhaye, who lived from 1786 to 1845, the grandson of the original builder.

This arrangement was maintained until the end of the 19th century.

Until 1857, the Delhayes continued to maintain their organ annually.

Around 1860 they ceased their activities and the Puurs organ came into the hands of some lesser-known organ builders.

 

,, The era after the Delhayes ,,

Later, a certain Louis Wouters from Brussels tunes the organ.

From 1893 onwards we see the Widow Stevens tuning the organ.

In 1897, major works were again planned for the organ.

Apparently, the Antwerp Provincial Council is also aware of these works, as an account was found from the church council to the Governor of Antwerp.

They reassure him. After the work, there will be no visible difference to the church or the organ case. It's simply a "partial change to things that date back to 1723 and are in poor condition."

The renovation consists of making 3 new windchests , a completely new mechanism and new keyboards.

Also, all existing games (registers) would be repaired and 7 new ones would be added.

In practice this means that the organ is completely rebuilt by Stevens.

The keyboards are removed from under the front and built into the left side wall as a kind of independent gaming table.

The gaming table itself is equipped with a mechanical playing mechanism, which, somewhere in the cash register foot , connects to a " mechano -pneumatic relay" which converts the mechanical action to the pneumatic action with cone chests that was built.

The main organ will be housed in the old organ case. Because a large amount of lead conductors needs to be installed, the case will be sawn down. The back wall will be removed, and behind the old case, under the arch of the church vault, an independent pedalboard will be installed in an open arrangement, with a 16-foot Soubas and an 8-foot Flûte.

Behind the pedalboard, on a raised platform in the tower room, a ressi keyboard is being built, behind swell shutters. This has its consequences, especially in winter. The main work is in direct contact with the rising, warm air from the heating system, while the tower is freezing.

Below the swell is the magazine bellows, which can be operated using two foot pedals.

At the same time, the organ was also completely romanticized, in accordance with the fashion of the time.

Although the provincial governor was informed that all the organs would be repaired and that, in addition, 7 new organs would be installed, an organ with 19 registers remains.

The fact that the organ apparently remains difficult to keep playing in this configuration is evident from the fact that every few years there are expenses, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, in addition to the costs of the annual tuning.

By 1940 the condition had become so bad that the organ could no longer be played at all.

However, it is being restored again.

From then on, the organ is kept playable as best as possible, but no real maintenance work is carried out.

The organ didn't fully survive the period until the church's restoration. For a long time, it was only playable in the summer due to the significant wind loss in the leaky bellows and ducts .

During the church's restoration, the organ would remain in place, initially unprotected and later covered by a plastic sheet.

One day before the official opening of the new church, the Pels company came by and reconnected the engine.

Everyone was amazed that the organ still produced sound, and that it had survived this period. It was used during the opening liturgy .

Later the same company would carry out a major cleaning of the organ.

However, it was already clear that things could not continue like this.

The Restoration 1994-1998
The first problem that needed to be addressed was the severely subsided condition of the organ case: before the installation of the pneumatic action, several panels, frames, and doors had been partially or completely removed, which had severely damaged the load-bearing structure.

During the restoration of the instrument itself, it initially seemed as if a balancing act would be necessary: after all, valuable pipework from 1723, 1795, and 1843 was present. ( The material from 1897 was considered non-historical serial work.)

The diverse Delhaye pipework, despite dating from different periods, exhibits such an overall homogeneity that the choice for a return to the last homogeneous state- that of 1843-was necessary.

The option to be taken was also strongly influenced by the organ case: a return to the balustrade organ was impossible, and only retaining the cabinet design from 1843 seemed a realistic possibility.

The fact that pipework from 1723 and 1795 remains in its "transformed" state (transformations that, incidentally, were carried out by the organ builder Delhaye himself) is entirely in line with the general policy options of contemporary monument conservation. A return to the lower pitch of 1723 would have necessitated the extension of all pipes from 1843, a remedy that would have been worse than the disease.

The disposition has been unknown for a long time.

After the renovation by Stevens, the organ was fitted with pneumatic side-wall playing.

The opening, which housed the original keyboards, was nailed shut with a large wooden panel.

Hidden beneath that panel were the openings for the register pulls, with their clearly legible nameplates.

Even the tractors had been reused: they had been made into coat racks for the rood screen.

The restoration from 1994 to 1998 was carried out by Jean-Pierre Draps , and Pot vliege -De Maajer .

In recent years the organ has been increasingly affected by organ metal plague.

It underwent major maintenance in 2019, during which the damaged pipes were restored.

The organ was now tuned to the old standard (according to Lambert, with five perfect fifths on the black keys). In 1998, the organ was tuned to equal temperament. Some troublesome intonation problems were resolved. The pitch is 407 Herz , almost one tone below the current pitch of 440 Herz .

Organ builder Verschueren was responsible for this work.

18.

The choir of the Puurs church was built in the fifteenth century, in the late Gothic Brabant style.
The paintings on the cross arches date from the 19th century.
Could the image of the church on the ceiling refer to the Romanesque church of Puurs?

19.

The Descent from the Cross by Le Saive is a Flemish school painting that appeared in the church between 1620 and 1624.
Jean Le Saive was one of the most prolific painters of the Flemish school. He worked first in Namur and then in Brussels.
What makes this painting particularly special is that it was signed by the painter. Jean Le Saive de Namur pinxit. Or, Jean Le Saive from Namur painted it. The painting was executed in oil on an oak panel. Several figures resemble the "Descent from the Cross" by Rubens, in Antwerp Cathedral, which is two years older.

The painting, painted in Purmerend, was considered so valuable that it was restored in 1987 by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels.
The painting depicts the Descent from the Cross. The dead Christ is taken down from the cross before being buried. It is possible that this painting was originally intended as a painting for the Holy Cross altar, which now houses a 19th-century work.

20.

This painting depicts the Adoration of the Magi. It is a Christmas scene. Wise men from the East came to the stable of Beth-le-Hem to look for the newborn child. They had seen his star in the East.
The artist who created the work is unknown.
The signature indicates A. Broeck, a previously unknown painter who must have been one of Rubens's assistants or followers.
The last two digits of the date 1600 are no longer legible.
The work was painted on an oak panel with oil paint.
The predecessor of Kerrickx's main altar dated from 1600-5. In that year, it was decorated with a very expensive and beautiful painting by an Antwerp master.
We can assume that this is the painting in question.

21.

The choir stalls were installed in 1886. They were designed by the provincial architect Blomme.
The stalls replaced the ones Kerrickx had previously designed. Dean Geboers was not pleased with these unsightly boxes.
He felt they were smaller and more compact than intended.
The curly style already reveals the Neo-Gothic style. Artfully crafted seated angels were placed on the corners of the stalls.
The stalls could be used for sitting on the pews or kneeling.
The benches could be folded up for this purpose. A protrusion was provided on the underside of the folded benches to help the person seated in them stand upright for extended periods.

22.

It is most likely that the communion rail was part of the choir stalls in the time of Father Verbrugghen.
In terms of style, it is most similar to the works of Kerrickx and De Smedt, both of whom were very active in the church of Puurs in the early 18th century.
During the restoration of the 1980s, the communion rail was moved closer to the old main altar. Before this restoration, it stood at the same height as the communion rails of both side altars.
The following scenes can be recognized in it:
The Jewish candlestick with seven branches; The Ark of the Covenant; The blood sacrifice with the pelican; The Eucharist; The Lamb of God from the Apocalypse; and the table of showbread.
The scenes are each centrally located within a sculpted compartment and surrounded by floral motifs, which are always the same.

23.

Father Verbrugghen was the priest who, at the beginning of the 18th century, so embellished the church in Puurs that it is still called the Cathedral of Klein-Brabant.
He was born in Erembodegem in 1688.
In 1714, he became assistant pastor in Puurs. Four years later, he was appointed pastor.
At that time, our region was experiencing a brief ice age. Winters were so cold that water and wine froze on the altar. These were also poor times for agriculture due to the cold, inclement weather.
Nevertheless, the priest, accompanied by an alderman and clerk, set out throughout the entire parish.
He kept a little book. In it, he recorded every household, all adults, and all children. He and the alderman and clerk went on a begging expedition. Using various symbols in the book, he noted who had already donated, who had not, and who had promised to contribute but had not yet done so. With the money he had raised, he built the organ and two confessionals in 1723.
This achievement was so beautiful that the congregation often turned around during Mass to admire the organ and to better hear the music. Therefore, a year later, he had a new altar built. He expressed his wish to be buried in the choir of his church and provided the headstone for this purpose.
The old altar was donated to the church of Eikevliet.

24.

The main altar from 1899 replaced the Kerrickx altar from 1724.
That altar was so large that the three central choir windows had to be bricked up to accommodate it.
In 1899, we were in the midst of the Neo-Gothic period, an art style that sought to bring the old, medieval, Gothic style back to the forefront. The then-church council felt it was unacceptable for Baroque furniture to be displayed in a Gothic choir.
Therefore, the Kerrickx altar was dismantled. The statues were moved to the church attic.
The statue of Moses, which is displayed elsewhere in the church, is likely still part of that altar.
In our childhood, Moses was installed as part of the pulpit.
It is clear that it is not part of it: the tail of the eagle in the pulpit has been largely cut away to accommodate it. The Kerrickx statues were taken down from the attic in 1964 for a local history exhibition. After the exhibition, they were likely deemed too heavy to drag back up to the attic and ingloriously burned in a barrel.
The Kerrickx altar was erected in 1724, a year after the organ was installed.
Churchgoers found the organ so beautiful that they kept turning around and looking away from the altar during Mass. This so irritated Father Verbrugghen that he promptly commissioned Kerrickx to design a grand altar, thus competing with himself, as he also designed the magnificent organ case. Whether this helped Father Verbrugghen is not documented.

The main altar was erected in 1899 by Leopold Blanchaert of Ghent. It replaced the largest Kerrickx altar from 1724. Religious scenes are carved into the retable. On the left side, we see Jesus handing the keys to Peter. An angel carries a ribbon with the words "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep."
The centerpiece depicts Jesus' death on the cross. In the background, a silhouette of the city of Jerusalem with a veiled sun and a veiled moon completes this scene with an angel holding a column of scourging and another with the instruments of the Passion.
The right side of the retable depicts Peter being freed from prison by the angel. An angel clarifies the scene with the text "the chains fell from his hands."
The offering table, between the columns at the bottom, depicts the sacrificial lamb on the left, Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac in the center, and the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek on the right.
The altar contains relics of Saint Peter, Saint Andrew, and Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of Dean Geboers. The altar was erected to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Father-Dean Geboers.
It was consecrated on October 3, 1899, by Cardinal Goossens, the then Archbishop of Mechelen.
In 1963, a new tabernacle was installed. During the 1988 restoration, this tabernacle was incorporated into the wall between the Altar of Our Lady and the column of the choir screen. The original tabernacle was subsequently rediscovered and replaced.

25.

This door once served as a lock on the safe in the sacristy. The sacristy, too, was a sculpted gem by Kerrickx during the time of Father Verbrugghen.
He created it in 1727. The cherub heads are almost identical to those on the pulpit. The same applies to the clouds and the beams of light.

26.

The stained-glass windows were installed starting in 1871. Because Kerrickx's Baroque altar was so grand, the three central choir windows had to be bricked up.
It was precisely in these three central windows that the first stained-glass windows were installed. Had the Kerrickx altar already been demolished by then?
It was Dean Timmermans who began installing the stained-glass windows. However, it was too expensive to install them all at once. Dean Timmermans was only able to see the three middle windows. It was his successor, Dean Geboers, who had the remaining stained-glass windows installed in 1874 and 1876. These priests could, in turn, rely on the generous donations of their parishioners.
If you have more time, you can examine the windows closely. Numerous inscriptions are included in the windows referring to their sponsors.