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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Wandrille de Bollezeele, located in the North, is a building mainly built of brick, with the exception of its bell tower which combines stone and brick. The nave, of neo-Gothic style, is flanked by low-sides covered in appentis and preceded by a two-gate porch. It reuses materials from an earlier nave of the 16th century, itself incorporating columns of a church of the 12th century, now missing. The choir, with three vessels of the same height, ends with a central polygonal apse and two flat lateral apses. The interior is characterized by stencil-painted panelling and the false vaults of plastered torchheads.

The tower, rebuilt in the late 15th or early 16th century, replaces an older building. The choir and part of the transept probably date back to 1606, although some elements might go back to the same period as the tower. The nave, originally an unfinished 16th-century hall church, was entirely rebuilt between 1878 and 1882 by architect Auguste Outters in a neo-Gothic style. This project erased the last traces of the medieval church, including the 12th century columns re-used in the previous nave.

Between 1895 and 1900, work symetized the building: the south arm of the transept was elongated, the apses redeveloped, and the panelling of the painted choir and transept. Sacristy, a neo-Gothic style, was probably added in the early twentieth century. The cemetery, originally adjacent to the church, was moved in 1865 for reasons of health and space. The bell tower, the only listed historical monument since 1935, dominates an architectural complex marked by successive reconstructions.

The building illustrates the evolution of techniques and styles, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, with a predominance of brick as a material. The modifications of the 19th and 20th centuries erased almost any trace of the earlier phases, with the exception of the tower and some elements of the choir. The church remains a testimony of local religious architecture, mixing medieval heritage and modern interventions.

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