Saint Martin's Church
Rood screen
Let the rood screen in the Sint-Martinuskerk in Tessenderlo sweep you away and experience the life of Christ in a glance.
Saint Martin's Church
Its tall spire makes the Gothic Church of Saint Martin, built between 1444 and 1484 as a replacement for its 12th-century Romanesque predecessor, stand out in the landscape. The natural-stone tower consists of six parts separated by water tables. Jan Maes and Jan Leyden were the architects behind this gem.
Rood screen
A rood screen or A rood screen or jubé is a stone screen separating the nave, where the congregation sat, from the choir, which was reserved for only the priest or other ordained people. The richly decorated rood screen in Saint Martin's Church dates from 1525 and was sculpted in soft limestone from Avesnes. It is 11 m long, rests on four Tournai-stone columns and depicts scenes from the life of Christ in 21 niches. Together, they make up a kind of ‘comic strip’ or a Bible for the masses. When the rood screen was made, not a lot of people could read, so a stone comic strip taught all those illiterate churchgoers what was, in fact, in the Bible. The screen is still a real status symbol for the church today, as a total of only five Gothic rood screens remain in Belgium. In the past, it was also a status symbol and essential for the liturgy: from readings to bishop consecrations.
Practical information
Disabled access
- Easy to access for the disabled.
