St. Andrew's Church, Antwerp, Catholic parish church in Sint-Andries, Antwerp, Belgium
St. Andrew's Church is a late-Gothic parish church of grey stone, with a tall square west tower topped by a balustrade and a projecting stair turret. Its nave has a steep slate roof with small dormer windows and pointed-arch windows with stone tracery. The interior is mainly Baroque, with a high altar made in 1729 by Willem Ignatius Kerricx and Peter I Verbrugghen, originally for Hemiksem Abbey.
The building was completed in 1529 under Margaret of Austria following the departure of the original Augustinian monks. This transition reflected the religious upheaval of the era and established the foundation for its later use as a parish church.
The parish was nicknamed the 'parish of misery' in the 19th century, when its Sint-Andrieskwartier neighbourhood was home to many poor residents. Since 2007 part of the church has housed a church museum, opened with an exhibition on the lives of Antwerp people connected to the church. The museum displays a street and an alley photograph contrasting the bourgeoisie with the lace workers of the old quarter.
The church and its treasury open as a museum from April through October; the church museum was inaugurated in November 2007. The building stands on Sint-Andriesstraat in the Sint-Andrieskwartier, and a parking sign marks a car park in front. A large restoration ran from November 2022 to May 2025, coordinated by AG Vespa, so parts of the exterior may still show recent work.
The church keeps a silver shrine of the Thirty-Six Holy, and the age-old Madonna statue of the Confraternity of Assistance and Victory received a new outfit from designer Ann Demeulemeester in 2001. The Baroque pulpit by Jan-Baptist Van Hool and Jan-Frans Van Geel (1821) shows the calling of Andrew and Peter among their nets.
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