Église Sainte-Anne, Neo-Gothic church in Anseremme, Belgium.
Église Sainte-Anne is a neo-Gothic Catholic church built in 1906–1907 to plans by architects Joostens and Smits, in the newer part of Anseremme between railway line 166 and the Lesse near its confluence with the Meuse. Inside, the baptismal corner holds a 12th-century font with a Mosan blue-stone column and a lid inscribed 'A Anserem 1582', and a justice stone carved with a crucifix and a Madonna and Child.
A first church stood in the old village loop of the Meuse; archaeology suggests three successive buildings, the last from 1780. When the village expanded east between railway line 166 and the Lesse, the neo-Gothic Sainte-Anne was built in 1906–1907 to plans by Joostens and Smits. The old Saint-Martin church closed in 1907 and was demolished in 1961; one bay remains as the cemetery chapel.
The church is dedicated to Saint Anne, mother of Mary, whose cult grew in the region during the Counter-Reformation. A recent Breton-made statue of Saint Anne (1976) stands on the first pillar on the right of the nave, and a choir window is also dedicated to her. A 19th-century Virgin and Child statue, carried in the village's Marian processions on 15 August, is in the sanctuary; its crown and the Child's globe have disappeared.
The church stands in the newer eastern part of Anseremme, between railway line 166 and the Lesse where it flows into the Meuse. The former Saint-Martin church in the old village loop was closed in 1907 and demolished in 1961; one bay survives in the cemetery as a chapel. The 1906-1907 building is still the parish place of worship, so visits fit around services.
The baptismal font's column is in Mosan blue stone, but its copper lid is local dinanderie bearing the inscription 'A Anserem 1582'. In the same baptistery corner stands the stone of justice, whose faces show Christ on the cross and the Madonna and Child; the arms of the abbot of Saint-Hubert were chiselled away during the French revolutionary period.
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