St Charles Borromeo, Antwerp

In August 1988 I had the first holiday on my own for a long while. Belgium was near and an easy escape. In a week I learnt a lot about Belgian beer and art while visiting most of the main cities

.I remember Antwerp as being the biggest surprise and have vowed to return. I particularly remember coming out into a little square confronting the Church of St Charles Borromeo. It is a lovely square, a  place to fester, and contemplate. I grew to love that  church facade, so different from the spired stone medieval churches of Lincolnshire where I grew up. It has also been described as "heaven on earth"

This was the Jesuit Church of Antwerp until 1779 and was built 1615-21. It is of course influenced by the architecture of the Gesu in Rome. It was the first in the world to be dedicated to Ignatius Loyola, the Jesuit founder. After the suppression of the Jesuits it was rededicated to St Chales Borromeo in 1779 and remains as a local parish church.

Originally there were 39 paintings by Rubens in the ceilings. Alas these were lost in the fire caused by lightning in 1718. In the 1980s it was restored to something of its original Baroque splendour, and this is how I saw it. Since then in 2012 Rubens painting of the Return of the Holy Family from Egypt has returned to its original place of honour behind the altar. It had been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1871 and after a sale at Christies has found its way back home.

In 1721 before the fire.by Sebastiaen Vrancx -
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien,
 Bilddatenbank.,Public Domain, https://commons.
wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4892387

Lady Chapel

The Lady Chapel to the right of the chancel has a copy of Rubens Assumption of the BVM and the stucco work is also believed to be designed by Rubens.

The nave as I saw it in 1988.