Heilig-Hartkerk

Heilig-Hartkerk stands in Antwerp’s Seefhoek district, opening onto a small paved square amid surrounding residential buildings. From the street, you see its northern façade, with three doorways beneath a sloping roof and a round stair tower carrying a lantern and spire.

Emile Goethals designed the church, built between 1933 and 1934 in a neoromanesque style inspired partly by Paris’s Sacré-Cœur. Red brick meets blue limestone around the base, doors, windows and upper decoration, while a Greek-cross plan gathers beneath a central dome about 25 metres wide. The parish began in 1900 with a temporary church designed by Jules Bilmeyer, and wartime delays later simplified Goethals’s more ambitious plans for towers and the dome. Inside, his fittings continue the building’s unified design and leave a clear view towards the altar.

Several communities use the church, including Belarusian, Anglo-African and Flemish groups, alongside the social organisation ’t Vlot. Sunday worship includes Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Anglo-African services, with a shared service held monthly. A distinctive detail remains outside: the rectory stands beside the church, while the house planned for the opposite side was never built.