St. Michael & St Gudula’s Cathedral, Brussels, Belgium

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula stands on an ancient site which began as an oratory. This would have been a small chapel where travellers could rest. It was located on the main trade routes between Bruges and Cologne, and France and Holland.  The oratory was dedicated to St. Michael, who is the patron saint of travellers. As Brussels grew, the oratory was replaced by newer, larger, churches.

In 1047, Count Lambert II Balderic decided to build a new church on this site, where he would establish a chapter with 12 canons.  This became the collegiate church of St. Michael.  After the church obtained the relics of St. Gudula, it became the church of St. Michael and St. Gudula.  The church was further enlarged in 1200, and by 1226 Henry I, Duke of Brabant, decided to replace the church once again with a larger one built in the gothic style.  For the next 300 years work continued on this church, spanning the whole of the gothic era, and leaving us with a cathedral today which represents many different gothic styles. 

In 1579 the church was ransacked by iconoclasts, and in 1794 it was again plundered during the French revolution. These two episodes meant that the medieval interior was almost completely destroyed. The gothic shell of the medieval church remains but its treasures have been lost. 

The collegiate church of St. Michael and St. Gudula became a Cathedral in 1962, when the new Archdiocese of Mechelen and Brussels was formed. At the time, St. Gudula was dropped from the title but she was reinstated in 1993. St. Gudula was the daughter of St. Amalberga and Count Witger and was born around the year 650. She was a member of the Pepin dynasty, who occupied the seat of the Carolingian Palace in the 7th and 8th Centuries.  Throughout her lifetime she is said to have devoted herself to the service of the poor and the sick.  In 1047, her remains were transferred from St. Gery’s island to Brussels collegiate church.