The origins of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk are deeply pragmatic, rooted in medieval urban necessities. In the 13th century, the area belonged to the Sint-Jansgasthuis (Saint John’s Hospital). The hospital used the land, consecrated as a cemetery in 1299 by authorisation of the Bishop of Cambrai, to bury those for whom there was no room in its own grounds.

The pivotal moment came in 1304. The superiors of the hospital, with the consent of their administrators, ceded a portion of this land to the ‘Grote Gilde van de Kruisboogschutters‘ (Grand Serment of the Crossbowmen). This powerful militia guild, officially recognized by the Dukes of Brabant, needed a chapel for their spiritual needs. They built a modest chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, known in Latin as the ‘Capella Beatae Mariae super Zabulum‘ (Chapel of the Blessed Mary on the Sablon). For nearly half a century, this simple structure sufficed.

1348: The Coming of the Miraculous Statue of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw op ‘t Stocxken

The fate of the chapel changed dramatically in 1348 with the arrival of a miraculous statue.

According to legend, a pious Brussels woman named Beatrijs Soetkens received a vision in which the Virgin Mary instructed her to go to Antwerp and bring back a venerated statuette known as ‘Onze-Lieve-Vrouw op ‘t Stocxken‘ (Our Lady on the Little Stick). Defying the Antwerp authorities, Soetkens allegedly stole the statue and, aided by miraculous events, transported it by boat up the Zenne River to Brussels.

The statue was solemnly welcomed by Duke Jan III of Brabant himself — a scene immortalized in a wooden bas-relief on the first column of the main nave — and entrusted to the Crossbowmen’s Guild for their chapel. This event transformed the Zavel into a major pilgrimage site. In gratitude, the guild vowed to hold an annual procession carrying the statue through Brussels. This vow laid the direct foundation for the city’s most famous historical pageant: the ‘Ommegang‘ (The ‘Procession’). The influx of pilgrims and their offerings provided the financial means for the guild to dream of replacing their humble chapel with a church worthy of their miraculous patron.

It is not clear when the chapel transformed into the current church, but from the official reception of the miraculous statue of Virgin Mary by Duke Jan III of Brabant, within half a century, work started in the 1400s at the latest. By the first half of the 16th century, the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk took its current Gothic form.

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk is special for its unique dual identity: as the sacred home of a miraculous statue and as the “guild church” of Brussels’ military and civil societies.

A Church of the Guilds

This was not a parish church but the spiritual headquarters of the city’s militias. The Grand Serment of the Crossbowmen held the place of honour in the choir. The other guilds—the Arquebusiers, Fencers, Archers (who had two altars), and the Small Serment of the Crossbowmen—each maintained their own dedicated altars to their patron saints (St. Christopher, St. Michael, St. Anthony, St. Sebastian, and St. George). This concentration of guild power made the church a centre of civic life and prestige. The guilds’ influence is still felt today, as it remains the rallying point for the surviving crossbowmen guilds and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

The Miraculous Statue and Its Legacy

Although the original 14th-century statue was destroyed by Calvinist iconoclasts in the late 16th century, its cult never died. A replacement statue, also venerated as miraculous, sits in a neo-Gothic altar in the right aisle, flanked by the coats of arms of the various Brussels guilds. The story of its translation is omnipresent in the church’s art, most notably in a large model of the boat that carried Beatrijs Soetkens, displayed in the south transept.

The “Ommegang” of 16 May 1615

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk soon became a favourite church of its rulers. The sandy hilly spot ‘Zavel’ which gave rise to its name used to be a horse market, in the middle of which was a pool or a well. In the fifteenth century, the area expanded considerably. In 1470, Duke Charles ‘the Bold’ of Burgundy commissioned the Court of Auditors to build a street between his palace on the Coudenberg and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk. At the baptism of his daughter Mary in 1505, the procession no longer followed the traditional route to Collegiale kerk van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele, but to Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk. Duchess Margaret of Austria, Governor of Habusburg Netherlands, practiced her devotional duties there. In 1530, she initiated the great July Procession – the “Ommegang“. These signs of ducal favour guaranteed the continued prosperity of the Zavel neighbourhood and the adjacent Wolweide (present-day Wolstraat), which extended to the slope of the Galgenberg, where the current Palace of Justice was built much later.

The annual procession, the Ommegang, evolved from a purely religious event into a magnificent display of civic pride and political power.

By the 16th and 17th centuries, it was one of the highlights of the Brussels calendar. A particularly notable event occurred on 15 May 1615. During the traditional crossbow competition (papegaaischieten), where the target bird was placed on the church roof, the Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands, participated. Demonstrating remarkable skill, she did not use her privilege to be replaced by an elite shooter and successfully shot down the bird herself, to great public acclaim. This event underscored the deep connection between the court, the guilds, and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk. Today, the modern historical Ommegang procession, which parses from the Zavel to the Grote Market, still begins by circling the church in commemoration of its origins.

You can see the immortalisation of the 1615 Ommegang in the paintings of Antoon Sallaert and Denijs van Alsloot. There are two versions of the paintings by Sallaert, one of which used to be hung in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk. It was stolen by the French under the French Occupation in end 18th century before it was finally returned in the 19th century. This version was restored and is now housed in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. The paintings by Denijs van Alsloot contained a series of six paintings taking place in the Grote Markt and also outside the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk on the Zavel.

Such high-level favour of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk also led to the neighbourhood being filled by other noble houses. First by the Egmonts, Culemborgs, Brederodes and Mansfelds, then later by the De Lannoys, De Lalaing, Thurn und Taxis, and de Solres.

Such a prestige accorded through the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk to the formerly sandy hill with a horse and cattle market, seems to have lasted until today, where the place name ‘Sablon’ is associated with high-class boutiques and expensive antique stores.

From 1617 onwards, the Miraculus Virgin was paraded around the Zavel accompanied by 12 virgins, as you can see in the two paintings by Antoon Sallaert.

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk is a masterpiece of late Brabantine Gothic, characterized by its soaring verticality, extensive use of bundled pillars without capitals, and an abundance of flamboyant, flame-like tracery. Built from luminous Gobertange stone, its construction spanned over a century (c. 1400-1549).

A Towerless Church

The exterior is notable for what it lacks: a tower. As explained by Vannieuwenhuyze, the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk was built well after the first and the second city walls have been completed. There was no need for a defence tower whilst this function is already fulfilled by other church nearby, especially the Sint-Niklaaskerk with its sky-high bell tower. In the County of Brabant, church towers did not only ring in the time, they were used to detect enemies and sound alarm. In contrast to this practice, the neighbouring County of Flanders has city-built belfries specifically for military purposes.

The original plan of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk did include a massive western tower, but it was never built, leaving the church with a distinctive, somewhat truncated silhouette.

The facade is adorned with three richly decorated portals, though much of their statuary dates from 19th and 20th-century restorations. The most striking external features are the enormous 14-meter tall stained-glass windows that flood the interior with light.

A Temple of Light

The interior creates an overwhelming impression of height and light. The choir, completed by 1435, is the oldest part. Its bundled pillars rise seamlessly to the vault without capitals, enhancing the vertical thrust. The 15th-century polychrome murals were rediscovered in the 19th century. The nave features twelve monumental statues of the Apostles (1641-46) by masters like Tobias de Lelis, attached to the columns. Above them runs a unique triforium (gallery) with rhythmic vesica piscis (fish-bladder) motifs. The Baroque pulpit (1697) by Mark de Vos, brought from a demolished Augustinian church, is a masterpiece featuring the four Evangelists.

The Impressive Baroque Chapels of the Thurn and Tassis

In the 17th century, the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk received a stunning Baroque addition that contrasts with, yet complements, its Gothic shell. The powerful Thurn und Taxis family, Imperial Postmasters whose palace stood opposite the church, built two funerary chapels flanking the choir.

The Chapel of St. Ursula (north, 1651-76) is an opulent marble-clad masterpiece. Designed by Lucas Fayd’herbe, it served as the family mausoleum and is a showcase for the greatest sculptors of the Flemish Baroque. The centrepiece of this chapel is the magnificent funerary monument for Lamoraal II Claudius Franz, Count of Thurn and Taxis. Sculpted in white marble by Mattheus van Beveren, it is a dynamic allegorical group set against a dramatic black marble background. The composition features the virtues of Constancy and Virtue flanking a central figure of Fame, who triumphs over Father Time. A host of angels completes the scene, one holding a portrait medallion of the deceased. This monument, facing a similar one for his wife, is a prime example of the theatrical, emotional style of High Baroque sculpture in the Southern Netherlands. The chapel also contains works by Gabriël Grupello, Hieronymus Duquesnoy the Younger, and Jan van Delen.

The matching Chapel of St. Marculf (south, 1690) completes this extraordinary Baroque pair. This chapel is currently out of bounds.

Victory over what?

The current name of the church, is the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Zege op de Zavelkerk (Église Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon) meaning referring to ‘Our Lady of Victory‘. The earliest text we can find of this name dates only from the 18th century, more precisely a written record on 8 May 1716. It was assumed, at that time, that the church was founded to celebrate the victory of Duke Jan I of Brabant at the 1288 Battle of Woeringen. The battle secured the future of the Duchy of Brabant and freed the city of Cologne off its Archbishopric.

This was of course not the case, because in the 13th century Brussels was still a small military outpost and the Zavel was still nothing more than a sandy hill.

It could however be that the victory was referring to the Habsburg Catholic overthrow of the Calvinist Brussels Republic of 1576-1585, or more realistically, Brussels’ near-death experience with the French Bombardment of 1695.

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk remains a vibrant and protected part of Brussels’ heritage.

While the miraculous statue that gave rise to its meteoric rise in royal favour was destroyed by the French, you can still see around the church various imageries of Beatrijs Soetkens carrying it back to Brussels.

It continues to serve as an active Catholic church and is a subsidiary of the nearby Kapellekerk. It maintains its historic ties to the crossbowmen guilds and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Most spectacularly, it is the evocative starting point for the annual Ommegang pageant – now a folks festival – ensuring the ancient link between the church, the procession, and the city’s collective memory is perpetually renewed.

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk was designated a protected historical monument on 5 March 1936. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, it underwent a comprehensive, fourteen-year restoration programme led by led by architects Jules-Jacques and Maurice Van Ysendyck to repair structural issues and clean the stonework, returning the building to its former glory. Inspired by Viollet-le-Duc‘s principles, they sought “stylistic unity” and added many neo-Gothic elements like pinnacles, openwork balustrades, and flying buttresses that the building had managed without for 400 years. From 1917-1937, architect François Malfait oversaw the installation of 57 new statues on the facade.

Visitors today can admire its architectural splendour, the stunning Baroque chapels, the elegant 18th-century organ by Jean-Baptiste Goynaut (restored in 1989), and numerous other art treasures. These include the reliquary of Saint Wivina, a triptych by Michiel Coxie, and stained-glass windows from the 19th and 20th centuries that commemorate Belgian nobility and victims of the World Wars. A plaque also notes that the French poet-diplomat Paul Claudel was a devoted visitor in the 1930s.

Above all, the restored original stained glass windows which have miraculously survived all the historical upheavals are breathtaking to behold!

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk stands not as a frozen museum piece, but as a living palimpsest. Its stones tell a layered story — of medieval guilds, miraculous visions, Baroque princes, and 19th-century restorers — all continuing to resonate in the heart of modern Brussels.

Sources:

Vannieuwenhuyze, B. (2011) “Brussel, de Ontwikkeling van een middeleeuwse stedelijke ruimte.” Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Henne, A. Wauters, A. (1845) “Histoire de la ville de Bruxelles. Volume I-III” Brussels: Librairie Encyclopédique de Périchon.
Rombaut, J-A. (1777) “Bruxelles illustrée, ou description chronologique et historique de cette ville.” Brussels: Chez Pauwels.
https://monument.heritage.brussels/nl/buildings/30493
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Zavelkerk
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Notre-Dame_du_Sablon_de_Bruxelles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_of_Victories_at_the_Sablon
https://historiek.net/onze-lieve-vrouw-ter-zavelkerk-in-brussel/8925/
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Ommegang_van_1615_in_Brussel
https://www.wikiwand.com/nl/articles/De_Ommegang_van_1615_in_Brussel

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