If there is a church in Antwerp that deserves to be called ‘monumental’, then it must be the celebrated collegial church of St. James where, in harmonious synthesis, you’ll find the powerful gothic (in the architecture) and the playful baroque (in the 17th and 18th century furniture and artwork).
Like many other European cities, Antwerp has a shrine to St. James. In the year 1431 an inn, intended to provide shelter for pilgrims on their way from Northern Europe to the grave of the apostle Jacobus in Santiago de Compostela, stood on this site, which was then outside the city walls. The modest chapel was built at the end of the fifteenth century when the community was elevated to a parish church and fifteen years later the chapel was replaced by the present-day church in Brabantine-Gothic style. The architects were father and sons De Waghemakere and Rombout Keldermans. The universal drive to greater and higher stimulated the architects to build (just) one tower, but one which was to overshadow that of Our-Lady’s church. In the end, barely a third of that approximately 165-m-high dream was realised, but it nevertheless makes the small houses round about look minuscule by comparison.
In the second half of the 16th century, events followed a certain pattern: iconoclasm, a short-lived co-habitation between Catholics and Protestants, Calvinist dominance and, after 1585, a return to Catholic worship. In the first half of the 17th century (in full baroque!), the eastern extension was further developed in gothic style. The burial chapel of the great master of the baroque, P.P. Rubens (+ 1640) is also gothic. There was a chapter here, a (collegial ?) group of canons, which is why this church is called ‘collegial’. They were committed to singing the divine office together (in a choir) each day in the choir. Many tradesmen and wealthy nobles donated particular pieces of furniture (including altars), ornaments (particularly epitaphs), and materials (the outstanding abundance of different types of marble). When Pope Clement XI learned about that, he gave Sint-Jakobskerk the title of a celebrated church; a title that people here are reluctant to let go of....
When the French occupied this area, the usual scenario was the closing and sale of the churches and their effects. Thanks to the local priest swearing allegiance to the French Republic, this didn’t happen to Sint-Jakobskerk. In fact, it is thus this form of collaboration to which Sint-Jakobskerk owes its unbelievably rich inheritance...
The individual character of Sint-Jakobskerk is determined partly by the unique choir rood screen (S. de Neve), crowned with an organ by the celebrated J.-B. Forceville (1727), of which the mechanical action is still in working order.
Behind it are the choir stalls (father and son A. Quellin) facing the graceful and triumphant high altar (A. Quellin Jr.), where the great apostle James is received in triumph by God. St. James sits enthroned under a (seemingly) marble baldachin in the form of a - what else? - enormous, openwork scallop.
Visual deception takes a different form in the marble communion rails in the sacrament chapel (W. Kerrickx Sr. and H. Verbruggen), where the hard, black character of the material disappears in the charming representation of such sweet server-angels and amazingly realistic fruits.
Magic is also worked with glass, as in the Rudolf van Habsburg window, whose life story you can follow in a magnificent green landscape (J. Labaer). And there is also the story of a pious emperor who has respect for that special presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament.
The numerous tombstones tell of a rich, self-assured banker, of a Spanish general slain by fear of death and a touchingly ascetic young Carthusian monk.
Never seen a swine eating in a church? Then ask for the Prodigal Son near one of the confessionals.
Truly, you won’t know where to look first. Under the influence of so much beauty, a German visitor of the late 19th century pronounced Sint-Jakob “as the richest church of the Germanic lands... it deserves to be standing in Venice”. However much the people of Antwerp relate to this sentiment, they’d rather keep Sint-Jakob here with them! Further discussion of these matters can be had in the nearby cafe, ‘In Sint-Jakob’, itself a worthwhile monument which stands in the shadow of the true Sint-Jakob, of which there is only one.
Laatste wijziging op 9/8/2002
Description St. James’ church