St. Gery's Church

St. Géry's church is a neo-Romanesque church located in Limelette.

Historique

The parish of Limelette was incorporated in the 15th century. It originally depended on the church of Our Lady of Mousty and separated from it in 1521.

A classical style church was erected here on the site of the former Castral Chapel at the end of the 17th beginning of the 18th century. Its tower was erected in 1632 and its nave in 1720.

This church was destroyed by the aerial bombardment of April 20, 1944 which also affected its neighbor, St. Martin's Church in Limal. This raid was part of the Allied program to destroy the German logistics infrastructure and targeted the railway facilities of the node of the lines Brussels-Namur and Louvain-Charleroi and more particularly the station of Ottignies and the fifty German locomotives which were found there. It was announced by English radio during the day: "SEINGITTO (Ottignies in reverse) will die tonight". This "carpet" bombardment, carried out by 196 Allied aircraft, dropped 1,500 to 2,000 bombs over an area from Moriensart to Limal and killed 84 people, including 41 in Limelette.

The new church (neo-Romanesque style)

The destroyed church was replaced by a neo-Romanesque church built by the architect Max Manfroid in 1953-1955, as evidenced by the first stone (or corner stone) inserted at the south-west corner of the church. building, at the foot of the tower:

"The St Géry's Germain Church destroyed
By the bombardment of 20-4-44
Was rebuilt in 1953-55
Max Manfroid Architect »

Architecture

The western facade

The tower

The church is built of sandstone and bluestone rubble and covered with slate.

To the west, it has a facade pierced by a triple arched entrance with a very imposing bluestone frame, topped with a huge oculus with star pattern made of the same material.

This facade is flanked on the south with a tall square tower, pierced by bays of increasing size. Blind on the ground floor, the tower is pierced by a thin bay on the first floor, three thin bays in the second and finally a triplet of bellfry bays with louvres (abat-sons).

Side facades and apse

Each of the side façades has three chapels each pierced with two windows topped with miter arches.

Each of the arms of the transept is pierced by a triplet of miter-arched windows lodged under a broad miter arch made of rubble, to which blocks of ferruginous sandstone give it a beautiful polychromy. This arch is topped with a small arrowslit.

To the east, the church ends with a flat apse decorated with a large niche with a miter arch sheltering a large rubble cross.

Heritage

The church once housed an important heritage of which only part has survived the bombing of 1944.

Among the lost heritage, there are beautiful baptismal fonts of the eleventh century as well as a polychrome wooden statue of Saint Géry dated 1691-1700. This statue, 90 cm high, was found in the rubble of the church after the bombing of 1944 and was even photographed in front of the ruins of the church in 1945. Sheltered, it was later lost except for its golden stick, preserved in the present church, on the wall of the left aisle. In 2014, the St. Géry launched a notice of research to try to find the statue.

Another 18th century wooden statue had suffered the same fate but was found at the Hermitage Museum in Wavre.

The most important vestige of the old church is the recumbent statue of Jeanne de Limelette and the knight Jean d'Ursel, a gothic tombstone preserved in the left aisle.

This 16th century recumbent statue, discovered during restoration work in the 18th century, was located under a niche near the altar. Recovered intact from the bombardment, it represents the lords of the village, Jeanne de Limelette (1462-1518), daughter of Pierre de Limelette (died in 1468), and her second husband, the knight Jean d'Ursel (1434-1505). It is the oldest recumbent statue preserved in the Wavre area.