STATUE OF GENERAL NÉGRIER.
This church was erected in 1702. The doorway, with its two tall modern statues of St. Peter and St. Andrew in niches, is of two different orders, superposed and divided by an entablature, the whole being surmounted by a triangular pediment.
THE PULPIT, CHURCH OF ST. ANDRÉ.
Near the entrance are two paintings: The Purification, and The Adoration of the Wise Men, by Otto Venius. In the southern aisle is a St. Theresa in Heaven by A. de Vuez; in the chapel of St Joseph: God sending his Son to save the World, by Van Oost; on the High Altar: Martyrdom of St. Andrew, by a local artist, G. Descamps; on either side of the choir, marble busts of St. Peter and St. Paul, by Quellin; in the northern aisle, the Annunciation, by A. de Vuez; in the Chapel of the Virgin, the Virgin giving the scapulary to one Simon Stock, by Jean Van Oost; a silver Tabernacle with bas-relief representing The Crucifixion, by the local goldsmith, Baudoux; an 18th century wrought-iron railing; 16th century sacerdotal ornaments from the Abbey of Loos. The pulpit (photo p. [54]) by J.-B. Daneson of Valenciennes, dates from 1876. Its sounding-board represents a heavy curtain raised by an angel.
Further on in the Rue Royale, after the Banque de France, in a small street on the right, is the Church of St. Catherine (photo below).
Church of St. Catherine
Like many Flemish churches, that of St. Catherine has no transept, and consists of three practically identical naves. Standing out from the façade, a large square tower, flanked at the corners by eight buttresses, supports the ancient timber-work belfry—one of the finest in the region. The bell-chamber is lighted by broken-arch bays. One of the heavy bells (1403) bears a curious inscription in rhymes. Below the tower is the great doorway.
The exterior decoration is very sober in style. The right-hand side of the building is masked by houses. The left façade, between whose high mullioned windows are buttresses decorated with small ornamental arcades, has been restored in modern times. Belts of foliage run round the gutters of the roof. The carvings on the great and small doorways are modern.