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Sint-Lievens-Houtem - St. Michaelkerk

City: Sint-Lievens-Houtem is a municipality in the province of East Flanders. It is located roughly in the middle of the axis Ghent-Aalst. This rural municipality, with 9,000 inhabitants, owes its name to the vast forests that must have once been here. Forests and many green areas still exist heree but slightly hidden behind rows of modern housing.

Building: St. Michaelkerk The church has a very long history. Apparently around the year 660 a first church was built during the reign of the French king Childeric (638-675). The first church was made out of wood. In the year 842 on the same site another church was built, in Carolingian style, over the grave of Livinus. In a Royal Charter Emperor Otto II confirmed the existence of the church - which is how we know the oldest parts of the church by the Royal Insitute of Patrimony are dated in from the 9th and 10th century.

Object: Inside the church is a statue of the archangel Michael. The statue shows the archangel Michael trampling the devil. The devil is depicted partly as a snake, partly as a dragon - refering to Revelation 12: 7-9. The Tetragrammaton is written on the shield.

 

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