Experience

ANTWERP | Sint-Andrieskerk will be completely free from scaffolding in spring of 2025

Posted by Timothy on

The restoration of the roofs and stained glass windows of the Sint-Andrieskerk (St. Andrew’s Church) in Antwerp started in November last year. The first phase of the works, which will include tackling the tower, will be completed at the end of this year. The church tower, a landmark of the city, is currently hidden behind the scaffolding, but they were given color thanks to illustrations all around. If everything goes smoothly, the complete restoration will be completed in the spring of 2025.

The Sint-Andrieskerk is located in the Sint-Andrieskwartier (St. Andrew’s Quarter), Antwerp’s fashion and antiques district, and is one of the city’s five monumental churches. Thanks to a heritage premium of 2,361,800 euros from the Flemish government, the restoration could start in November 2022.

Implementation in three phases

The works will be carried out in phases.

  1. In the first phase, which will run until the end of this year, the contractor will tackle the choir, the eastern side of the transept and the tower. The facades were lightly cleaned, the poor masonry was cut out and replaced locally and all the pointing was checked and replaced where necessary. All the stained glass windows have already been fitted with secondary glazing to protect against wind and weather. Most of the stained glass windows have been cleaned, restored and replaced.The complete renovation of the slate roofing and gutters of the building is in full swing.The copper of the dome is currently being replaced, the tower cross restored and the sphere under the tower cross and the weathercock restored and re-gilded.
  2. The north side of the church (nave, side aisle, cross aisle) will be discussed in the second phase. These works are scheduled to be completed in mid-2024.
  3. In the final phase, work is being done on the south side of the building (nave, side aisle, cross aisle). If everything goes according to plan, the work will end in the spring of 2025.

The church will remain accessible to parishioners and visitors during all works.

St. Andrew’s in scaffolding.

Letter from 1973

Due to the risk of collapse, the wooden tower lantern of the Sint-Andrieskerk was demolished in 1961 and the church tower temporarily disappeared from the cityscape of Antwerp. In 1973, after the restoration, it appeared again in all its glory. During the current restoration work, the contractor found a steel tube with a letter in the sphere under the tower cross. It turned out to have been written by the construction team that restored the tower during that period. In addition to the letter, there were also some coins in the tube, including one from the year 1940.

Yard illustrations

In order to be able to work on the tower dome of the tower, the scaffolding has now been raised to the top. Just like for the wharf fence in Sint-Andriesstraat, artist Kolchoz made illustrations on each side of the tower.

The illustrations of the site fence focus on the colorful Sint-Andries district and the church with its rich history. Kolchoz took music as inspiration for the new scaffolding cloths. There are various musical instruments on display and at the top there is a reference with a nod to the well-known music song ‘God is a DJ‘ by Faithless.

On the look of Antwerp