Chapel of Our Lady of Kerselare

Juliaan Lampens

Oudenaarde, Kerzelare

1963 – 1966

Kerselare

Where is Kerselare? That was the first question. Apparently somewhere in the south of East Flanders. We could sometimes pass by on the way to Lille or Paris. That is how I happened to be able to finally admire this chapel … I had known it from my architecture period. It is actually through this church that we also visited Woning Van Wassenhove, about which I have already written a blog post. But I had first visited this chapel.

Chapel

The first chapel on this site dates back to 1460. It stood on the site of a cherry tree with a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary. A little over 100 years later, in 1570, the chapel was already enlarged. After the French Revolution, it came into the hands of a private individual. Later the chapel returned to the hands of the church factory, which upholstered it with furniture, an altar, a confessional and an organ. On February 21, 1961, the entire chapel was destroyed by fire. The miracle statue could be saved. An international competition was organized for the design of the new chapel.

Juliaan Lampens

Lampens won the competition and the church was built between 1963 and 1966. It was not the first church made of (reinforced) concrete in our country, but they were still rare. Certainly the view of the concrete and the design were unique in church construction. A light tube was made above the altar. The benches are now positioned against the side walls, but in the beginning they were in a certain pattern that matched the pattern of the floor.

Concrete rot

Since 2012, the roof has to be supported because of concrete rot. That is why the photos are the statements.