St-Katherinakerk

Northeast Belgium


Hoogstraten's fabulous belfry is an enormous 105m-tall red-brick edifice picked out with dots of white-stone detail in a style known as speklagen. Dating to 1556, it was dynamited by retreating WWII German troops in 1944, but meticulously rebuilt in the 1950s, as photos inside the church show.

In the apse, don't miss the double grave of Elisabeth de Culemborg and Antoon de Lalaing, under whom Hoogstraaten's status was raised to that of a county in the 16th century.


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