Church of Our Lady of Laeken

Queen Louise-Marie, wife of King Leopold I, died in Ostend in 1850 and wished to be buried in Laeken. The nearby Royal Palace of Laeken was, and still is, the royal residence. Leopold I wished the church to be constructed in her memory and as a mausoleum for her. By royal decree of 14 October 1850, the Belgian Government authorised the construction of the edifice and organised a competition, the rules of which stipulated that the church should be able to contain 2,000 people and that its price should not exceed 800,000 Belgian francs.[1]

The Church of Our Lady of Laeken in 1872. Note the missing spire.

The architect Joseph Poelaert was chosen to design the new church.[2] He later became best known for the Law Courts of Brussels. The project initially selected was a fairly simple brick building with stone bands and whose facade was surmounted by a single spire covered with slate. In 1853, the jury proposed to modify the project in the direction of greater monumentality, with a neo-Gothic facade with three spires. This led to an overrun of the initial budget, which was the first of a long series.

The first stone was laid by Leopold I in 1854. In 1865, Poelaert, absorbed by the Law Courts project since 1862, claimed health problems and gave up the management of the works.[3] Several architects succeeded him: Auguste Payen, Antoine Trappeniers, Louis de Curte and Alphonse Groothaert.

The church before the 1909–1911 completion works

The church is monumental, and although consecrated in 1872, apart from maintenance and consolidation works, its completion was resumed only after a lengthy interruption.[2][4] It was King Leopold II who, concerned about the embellishment of the place, in 1896, relaunched the project still compromised by the lack of funds. In 1902, as the building continued to deteriorate, a Munich architect, Baron Heinrich von Schmidt, was commissioned to carry out a general examination of its condition.[5] In 1907, the Government approved his plan to complete the main facade, the monumental porches and the central tower. This work was carried out from 1909 to 1911.[6]

Pope Pius XI crowned the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary enshrined within the church on 17 May 1936 in the presence of the King Leopold III and his royal heirs. This venerated Marian image became the source for the image of Our Lady of China, crowned by Pope Francis on 19 February 2021.

In 2003, a restoration project began on the front facade and the three towers (2003–2006), the roofs (2007–2009) and the side facades (2010–2012).[7][8][9]

• Cosyn, Arthur (1904). Laeken ancien et moderne (in French). Brussels: Imprimerie scientifique Charles Bulens.
• Spapens, Christian; Gombert, Charles (2006). L'église Notre-Dame de Laeken, un mémorial inachevé (in French). Brussels: Centre d'information, de Documentation et d'Etude du Patrimoine.
• State, Paul F. (2004). Historical dictionary of Brussels. Historical dictionaries of cities of the world. Vol. 14. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5075-0.