Pont-de-Bonne Chapel

• Date 1952
• Address Route de Limet, 86 – 4577 Modave

Having graduated from the Institut des Arts décoratifs de La Cambre in 1951, Charles Vandenhove began his career with a project which, whilst modest, already demonstrated the tendencies that would characterise his career as an architect. In partnership with Lucien Kroll – whom he had met a few years earlier at Saint-Luc in Liège and with whom he would complete all his studies – as well as Jacques-Grégoire Watelet, who also graduated in the same year, Vandenhove embarked in 1952 on the conversion of a small chapel in a former garage. The client, Countess May de Liedekerke, wished to provide a place of contemplation for the residents of the small village of Pont-de-Bonne. Set back from the road, at the foot of an expressway leading to Limet, the chapel is situated behind two walls of sandstone rubble, the materiality of which ensures the project blends seamlessly into its surroundings. Between the walls and the chapel, a small courtyard offers worshippers a place to meet and socialise. The street-facing façade, however, marks a break with its surroundings. Blind and constructed of white-painted bricks, it embodies a style characteristic of post-war modernism – a design language reminiscent of the work of Roger Bastin and Jacques Dupuis, whilst adopting a more understated approach. Preceded by a wall some sixty centimetres thick that acts as a buffer, shielding the place of worship from traffic noise, the façade features a bell on the left and is pierced by the main door, which, slightly off-centre, opens onto the prayer hall. This space – whose rectangular floor plan also reveals a sense of great restraint – features three tall windows facing a solid wall decorated with a painted composition by Jean Beaudry depicting the Stations of the Cross. Whether in terms of the liturgical furnishings or certain decorative elements, the whole complex bears witness to Vandenhove’s early reflections on the links between art and architecture and, to quote Raymond Balau: ‘The serenity that emanates from the whole is due to a nascent art of proportion and arrangement.’

Guest artist: Jean Beaudry.

• Description of the collection

  1 folder containing a few photographs.

• Bibliography

  BALAU, Raymond, “Chapelle du Pont-de-Bonne (1952)”, in Les Nouvelles du patrimoine, n° 98, October–November–December 2002, p. 12-13.

  BEKAERT, Geert, VERSCHAFFEL, Bart, DERCON, Chris, Charles Vandenhove : art et architecture, Tournai, La Renaissance du Livre, 1998, p. 21.

• AUTHOR AND DATE OF THE ENTRY Sébastien Charlier, 2021