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Rising to over 115 meters, the Church of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) is the second tallest brick church in the world. The foundations for a place of worship on this site date back to the year 875, when a Carolingian chapel was built here. The current church was constructed in phases between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries in Tournai stone and in various Gothic styles.
First and foremost among the many highlights in this church are the painted tombs from the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and the tombs of Mary of Burgundy by Jan Borman and Charles the Bold by Jacques Jonghelinck (from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, respectively). They are flanked by the coats of arms of the members of the Order of the Golden Fleece from 1468. Displayed in the south aisle is the famous marble sculpture Madonna and Child by Michelangelo Buonarotti. In addition, several sixteenth-century paintings are among the treasures of our cultural heritage: the Passion Triptych by Barend van Orley, Gerard David’s The Transfiguration of Christ, the right wing of the diptych of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows by Adriaan Isenbrant, and the Damhouder Triptych by Pieter Pourbus.
The Museum of the Church of Our Lady is administered by Musea Brugge.