St. Aubin's Cathedral () is a
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
in
Namur
Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration.
Namur stands at the confl ...
, Belgium, and the country's only cathedral in
academic Late Baroque style. It was the only church built in the
Low Countries
The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
as a cathedral after 1559, when most of the dioceses of the Netherlands were reorganized. It is classified as part of ''Wallonia's Major Heritage'' by the
Walloon Region
Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three regions of Belgium—along with Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the country, Wallonia is primarily French-speaking. It accounts for 55% o ...
.
History
The cathedral was founded as a
collegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...
in 1047 by
Albert II of Namur. The first dean, Frederick of Lorraine, brother-in-law of Albert II, about 1050 secured from
Mainz Cathedral
Mainz Cathedral or St. Martin's Cathedral ( or, officially, ') is located near the historical center and pedestrianized market square of the city of Mainz, Germany. This 1000-year-old Roman Catholic cathedral is the site of the episcopal see of th ...
a portion of the head of
Saint Albanus, to whose patronage the collegiate church was dedicated. In 1057, Frederick became pope under the name of
Stephen IX. In 1209,
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216.
Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...
formally took the Church of St. Aubin under his protection.
The church became a cathedral by virtue of the
papal bull
A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it.
History
Papal ...
of 12 May 1559 establishing the new bishoprics in the Low Countries, with the
Diocese of Namur created as a suffragan see of the
Archdiocese of Cambrai
The Archdiocese of Cambrai (; French: ''Archidiocèse de Cambrai'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France, comprising the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Helpe, Cambrai, Douai, and Valenci ...
.
[
In the cathedral, a marble plaque near the ]high altar
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...
conceals a casket containing the heart of Don Juan of Austria, governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. This rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. ...
, who died in 1578; his body lies in the Escorial
El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (), or (), is a historical residence of the king of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, up the valley ( road distance) from the town of El Escorial and about n ...
near Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
.
Between 1751 and 1767, the cathedral was almost entirely rebuilt to Italianate designs of the Ticinese architect Gaetano Matteo Pisoni.[St. Alban's cathedral]
from ''Belgian View'' accessed 31 March 2013 A 13th-century tower at the west end of the church is the main remnant from before the rebuilding.
In 1908, a Belgian architect, Charles Ménart used the cathedral as inspiration for a church he designed, St Aloysius Church, in Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
.[''St Aloysius'']
Scotland Churches Trust
Retrieved 28 January 2013
Interior
In the interior, there is an ornamented frieze, carved with swags of fruit and flowers between the Corinthian capitals
The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, which was the earliest, ...
runs in an unbroken band entirely around the church. All colour is avoided, replaced by architectural enrichments and the bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
s in the pendentive
In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...
s of the dome. The interior contains works of art that include paintings by Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh child of ...
, and Jacques Nicolaï, a Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
lay brother
Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choi ...
and student of Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...
. There is also an old, Romanesque baptismal font.[
]
Gallery
File:Namur Ca1JPG.jpg, Main facade
File:Cathédrale Saint Aubain vue en hauteur.JPG, Skyline view
File:Kathedraal Namen.jpg, The nave
File:2h Namur 13.jpg, Dome and vaulting
File:Namur-Cathédrale Saint-Aubain - coupole baroque.jpg, Dome interior
File:Namur-Cathédrale Saint-Aubain - intérieur.JPG, Interior
File:Namur-Cathédrale Saint-Aubain - la chaire.JPG, Pulpit
File:Namur-Cathédrale Saint-Aubain - l´autel du côté.jpg, Chapel
File:Namur-Cathédrale Saint-Aubain-orgue.jpg, Organ
References
External links
Cathedral websiteBelgian View
{{Authority control
Wallonia's Major Heritage
Roman Catholic cathedrals in Belgium
Churches in Namur (province)
Buildings and structures in Namur (city)
1047 establishments in Europe