Open Church Days

The theme for the Open Church Days 2024 "With a nod to the impossible" certainly applies to Kessenich's St Martin's Church.

In 1896, everyone thought it impossible that a new village church could be built in Kessenich, a small village in the outskirts of Belgium with barely 800 inhabitants. But what seemed impossible could nevertheless be realised. Mainly thanks to the titanic work of parish priest Michael Geusens and the generous donations of Willem Hendrik Baron Michiels van Kessenich, a new village church could be built. And not just an ordinary little village church, it became a magnificent neo-Gothic edifice that already in the first years after its realisation was given the title 'Pearl of the Maasland'.

Decades later, the church administration again faced an impossible task. The neo-Gothic Sint-Martinus church of Kessenich was painted with beautiful scenes by the Atelier Bressers of Ghent in 1906-1907. The soot from the many candles burned for decades, smoke from the old coal stoves and years of seeping moisture caused a lot of damage to these murals. The cost of restoration was so high that another solution had to be sought: the dirt would be removed with pencil erasers. In 1992-1993, the job was completed by ± 80 volunteers from the village and the church regained its former glory.