Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (Mechelen)

The Jesuits started work on this Baroque church dedicated to Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francis Xavier in 1670. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the parish of Saint Peter and Saint Paul asked to make it its parish church. Its official name is ‘Saint Peter and Saint Paul visiting Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francis Xavier' It boasts richly decorated interiors featuring an impressive 18th-century altar, pulpit and paintings as well as 14 confessionals integrated into the wall. Lovely wood-carving examples from Mechelen. One legend is that the reason why the church had so many confessionals was because it was close to the cattle market where there was so much lying and deceit that they were all sorely needed. The real reason, though, seems to have been that the church was originally a pilgrims church with lots of relics. And if you wanted to touch them... you had to be free of sin.

The oak pulpit was made around 1700 by Hendrik Frans Verbruggen (1654-1724), an artist from a well-known family of sculptors. Indeed, Verbruggen was a Baroque church furniture specialist. The pulpit was designed as one single wood carving. On the globe at the bottom, the four continents known at the time are presented as people supporting the pulpit which is decorated with the attributes of the four evangelists and the four medallions with the likenesses of Jesuit saints. Two angels support the sounding board, the wooden canopy that amplified the priest’s voice. The pulpit had to make it clear to the congregation that the Jesuits spread the only true faith throughout the world. It is mainly Verbruggen’s fine carvings that steal the show.