Saint-Peter's Church: traces of 1,000 years of history

Find the dragon!

St Peter's Church has a long and eventful history. You can see many traces of this around the church itself, but also in M's collection.

The story begins around the year 1000, Marjan Debaene, chief curator of ancient art, tells us.
‘That's when a church in Romanesque style was built here. All that is left is the choir, which is now the crypt, because the street level was a lot lower back then. It was also where the tomb of Duke Henry I was located, which is now in a side chapel.’

‘The construction of the Gothic church started shortly after 1400. The Romanesque parts were replaced step by step, starting with the east choir. This took about a century which at that time was quite fast. As a result, the church is remarkably homogeneous in style.’

‘By 1500, only the west building was still missing. Joost Massys drew three gigantic towers, but they sank into the swampy ground during construction. That is when they stopped, what is left today is only the base of the towers. But we have a 16th-century model of what it should have looked like in the church.’

Gravure van het westelijk tochtportaal van de Sint-Pieterskerk in Leuven, A. Rentmeesters, 1891, Collectie M Leuven, foto: M Leuven

New fashion

‘Anyone who has visited M over the past few months will have noticed that the layout has changed. The first painting you now see when you enter is an interior of St Peter's Church from 1667. Two of the works depicted on it will also be displayed at M in the coming years: a trinity from the studio of Rogier van der Weyden, and a statue of St Christopher.’

‘In the early 18th century, they adapted the church interior to the new, more Baroque fashion. Many of the works in that 1667 painting were removed. Including ‘The Last Supper’ by Bouts.’

‘In 1798, during the French occupation, the church treasures were sold publicly on the Lange Trappen, in front of the west portal. That is how some of the choir stalls ended up in England. Such as 17 misericords, or mercy seats, which are now in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.’

‘In the 20th century, the church was hit by war twice. In 1914, German troops tried to set fire to the building. The wooden Renaissance portals in the west building were lost. In 1944, the organ, also Renaissance, was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid.’

Links: Triomfkruisensemble, Jan II Borman, ca. 1490, Collectie M Leuven Sint-Pieterskerk | Rechts: Maquette voor de westtorens van de Sint-Pieterskerk, Joost Massys en Jan Beyaert, ca.1524-1530, Collectie M Leuven | Sint-Pieterskerk | Bron: artinflanders.be, foto: Dominique Provost

The most beautiful dragon

‘The church has had an eventful history. Much has been destroyed, sold or disappeared. I am currently researching a late-medieval retable that presumably stood on the high altar, of which only a few fragments have survived. These were sold in the 19th century to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, where they are still on display.’

‘M's collection contains some 250 works and objects from St Peter's Church. Most of it is still in the church itself, but about 40 pieces we keep at M, such as two wings of a retable by Jan Rombouts. If you come to M, be sure to look at the back where Rombouts painted the most beautiful dragon of the entire 16th century. At least if you ask me (laughs).’