Eglise Saint-Pierre
THE ABANDONED CHURCH IN BELGIUM
‘Eglise Saint-Pierre’ is an abandoned church in the Belgium town Grâce-Hollogne. The church was eventually demolished in 2017.
This site has a long history. Originally, it was a Merovingian cemetery. Archaeologists say the Romanesque tower is the last part of the first church, built in the 12th century. Later, a Gothic church stood here, but it was eventually torn down.
The last church was constructed in 1756 and expanded in 1895. By 1999, the building was in danger of collapsing. The mayor had it reinforced in a neoclassical style, but the church was already suffering from dry rot. In 1983, an earthquake made the structure even more unstable. There was no money to restore it properly.
Demolition and Preservation
The church was officially protected in 1972. Yet by the 2010s, it had become so unsafe that part of it had to be demolished. The post-medieval sections of the church remain protected. The Romanesque tower survived and is now being restored.
I took these photos just a few months before the demolition, capturing the final days of the building before change took over. Today, there is a small park on the site of ‘Eglise Saint-Pierre’. Follow this link for more abandoned churches in Europe.
