Situated exactly halfway along the historic corridor connecting the national capital of Brussels to the south and the port metropolis of Antwerp to the north, the city of Mechelen (known in French as Malines) has occupied a pivotal position in the history of the Low Countries since the Middle Ages. Once the refined Renaissance court capital of Archduchess Margaret of Austria and the seat of the Great Council (the supreme court of the Habsburg Netherlands), Mechelen has served since 1559 as the Primatial See of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium. Stepping out from the cobbled lanes along the Dijle River into the expansive civic square of the Grote Markt, visitors are immediately confronted by a colossal mass of pale white sandy limestone rising straight into the Flemish sky: the 97.28-meter flat-topped tower of St. Rumbold's Cathedral (known in Dutch as Sint-Romboutskathedraal and in French as Cathedrale Saint-Rombaut).
Within the architectural treasury of European Catholicism, St. Rumbold's Cathedral stands as one of the earliest and purest monuments of Brabantine Gothic (Brabantse gotiek) architecture. Unlike the filigreed spire of Antwerp Cathedral or the twin-towered facade of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels, the western tower of Mechelen terminates abruptly in a bold horizontal platform nearly one hundred meters above the street, because its ambitious 167-meter stone spire was left unfinished around 1520. Yet that historical incompletion gave the monument its unmistakable silhouette, honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 and cherished for housing the relics of the city's eighth-century martyr patron, Sir Anthony van Dyck's monumental painting of the Crucifixion, Lucas Faydherbe's Baroque High Altar, and the twin 49-bell carillons that made Mechelen the world capital of bell music.
ISaint Rumbold the Eighth-Century Martyr, the Primatial See of Belgium, and the 1687 Legend of the Moon Extinguishers
The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Rumbold (called Sint-Rombout in Dutch, Saint Rombaut in French, and Rumoldus in Latin), the patron saint of the city of Mechelen and of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. According to the earliest surviving hagiographical account, the Vita Sancti Rumoldi compiled around the year 1100 by Theodoric of Saint-Trond, Rumbold was an Anglo-Saxon, Irish, or Scottish monk of noble or royal lineage belonging to the vibrant Hiberno-Scottish missionary movement of the early Middle Ages. After making a pilgrimage to Rome to venerate the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, he received episcopal consecration and papal blessing to preach the Gospel among the Frankish and Friesian populations along the Scheldt and Dijle rivers in Brabant.
Arriving in the marshy valley of the Dijle River in the mid-eighth century, Saint Rumbold was welcomed by the local Frankish lord, Count Ado (Adon) and his pious wife Elisa. Local tradition, vividly illustrated on a famous cycle of fifteenth-century panel paintings inside the cathedral, recounts that Count Ado's young son Libertus drowned accidentally in the waters of the Dijle; through the fervent prayers of Saint Rumbold, the boy was restored to life and later became a monk and martyr himself during the Viking raids. In gratitude for the miracle, Count Ado granted Rumbold land at Mechelen to establish a monastic community andatory near the site where the cathedral now stands.
The martyrdom of Saint Rumbold took place around June 24, 775 CE. While overseeing construction work near his monastery, the aged missionary bishop was ambushed by two laborers: one harbored bitter resentment because Rumbold had publicly admonished him for adultery and an immoral life, while the other mistakenly believed that the ascetic missionary carried a purse full of gold coins to pay the builders. Striking Saint Rumbold on the head with an iron hoe while he walked in evening prayer, the two assailants took the few coins they found and cast his body into a nearby stream to conceal their crime.
According to cathedral tradition, fishermen and townspeople walking by the water at night beheld a radiant column of heavenly light shining down upon the stream where the martyr's body lay submerged. Count Ado recovered the incorrupt body of Saint Rumbold and entombed it with solemn honor inside the monastery chapel. Across the centuries, devotion to Saint Rumbold in the Low Countries has centered on missionary courage, fidelity in marriage and family life, and integrity of conscience. Today his relics rest inside a gilded Neo-Gothic reliquary chest enthroned high within the marble High Altar of the cathedral, carried through the streets during major civic and religious jubilees.
In ecclesiastical history, the milestone that elevated St. Rumbold's from a wealthy collegiate church into the mother church of Belgian Catholicism occurred on May 12, 1559. By the papal bull Super universas, Pope Paul IV (acting at the request of King Philip II of Spain, sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands) reorganized the diocesan hierarchy of the Low Countries, establishing the Archdiocese of Mechelen and conferring upon its Archbishop the title of Primate of the Low Countries (Primas Belgii). The first Archbishop was the influential Habsburg statesman Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517 to 1586). In December 1961, under Cardinal Leo Jozef Suenens (one of the four papal moderators of the Second Vatican Council), the see was renamed the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, with St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen remaining the primary metropolitan cathedral where the Archbishops and Cardinals of Belgium are installed and buried.
Two widespread misconceptions often surround the great western tower of St. Rumbold's Cathedral. First, many visitors looking up at its flat summit at 97.28 meters assume that a pointed spire once stood there and collapsed during a storm or war. In fact, the upper stone spire was never built: according to the original fifteenth-century architectural parchment drawn by the Keldermans family, the tower was designed to reach an astonishing 167 meters (600 Mechelen feet, which would have surpassed Ulm Minster as the tallest church tower on earth). However, around 1520, after almost seventy years of construction, civic funds ran dry and the marshy subsoil reached its safe load-bearing limit, halting work permanently at the base of the planned spire.
Second is the beloved historical anecdote behind the nickname given to all citizens of Mechelen: Maneblussers (meaning Moon Extinguishers). City chronicles record that on the misty winter night of January 27 to 28, 1687, a late-night tavern patron stepped outside and saw an eerie reddish-orange glow flickering behind the high Gothic lancet windows of St. Rumbold's Tower. Convinced that the cathedral belfry was ablaze, he raised the alarm; the town council and hundreds of neighbors formed a bucket brigade, charging up the 500-plus stone steps with pails of water. Only upon reaching the upper belfry did the breathless citizens realize there was no fire at all: it was simply the blood-red full moon rising through the river fog behind the stone tracery. Far from hiding the embarrassment, Mechelen embraced the nickname Maneblussers as a badge of civic solidarity and humor.
IIOver Eight Centuries from the Medieval Collegiate Chapter and Religious Wars to the Twentieth-Century Malines Conversations
The architectural and spiritual chronicle of St. Rumbold's Cathedral spans more than eight hundred years, mirroring the rise of medieval Flemish cloth towns, the artistic splendor of the Burgundian and Habsburg courts, the upheaval of sixteenth-century religious strife, and the prophetic leadership of Belgium's modern cardinals.
- c. 775 and c. 1000Martyrdom of Saint Rumbold and founding of the Collegiate Chapter by Bishop NotgerFollowing Saint Rumbold's martyrdom around 775, his abbey becomes a regional pilgrimage shrine; around the year 1000, Prince-Bishop Notger of Liege establishes a Secular Chapter of Canons to serve the church and guard the relics.
- Shortly after 1200 to 1312Construction of the early Brabantine Gothic church and first consecrationWork begins on a monumental three-aisled Gothic collegiate church built of white Brabantine limestone to replace the earlier Romanesque structures; the completed nave and transept are consecrated in 1312.
- 1342 to 1451Rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1342 and completion of the High ChoirAfter a devastating city fire in 1342 damages the church, master mason Jean d'Oisy directs the stone vaulting of the nave and designs a soaring High Gothic choir with an ambulatory and seven radiating chapels (completed by 1451).
- May 22, 1452 to c. 1520Erection of the 97.28-meter western bell tower (Sint-Romboutstoren)Financed initially by offerings from Pope Nicholas V's 1451 Jubilee Year indulgences and later by municipal salt taxes, generations of the Keldermans architectural dynasty build the colossal western tower, stopping around 1520 at 97.28 meters.
- May 12, 1559Elevation to Metropolitan Cathedral and Primatial See of the Low CountriesPope Paul IV issues the bull Super universas creating the Archdiocese of Mechelen, elevating St. Rumbold's to cathedral status under its first Archbishop, Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle.
- 1566, 1580, and the 17th centuryThe English Fury of 1580 and the Counter-Reformation Baroque renewalAfter the cathedral interior is pillaged during the Iconoclastic Fury (1566) and the English Fury under Calvinist rule on April 9, 1580, seventeenth-century Archbishops Matthias Hovius and Jacobus Boonen refurnish the church with Flemish Baroque masterworks.
- 1914 to 1926Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier's wartime resistance and the Malines ConversationsDespite German artillery shelling of the cathedral in August and September 1914, Cardinal Mercier rallies the nation with his pastoral letter Patriotism and Endurance; from 1921 to 1926 he hosts the pioneering ecumenical Malines Conversations with Anglican leaders.
- 1972, 1985, and 1999Rescue from the 1972 roof fire, papal visit of John Paul II, and UNESCO inscriptionOn the night of September 1, 1972 a major fire destroys the nave roof timbering before firefighters save the vaults and tower; Pope John Paul II visits the cathedral on May 18, 1985, and UNESCO inscribes the tower on the World Heritage List in 1999.
Three historical figures who shaped the art and spiritual legacy of St. Rumbold's Cathedral. The first is the master builder Rombout II Keldermans (c. 1460 to 1531), together with his father Antoon I and grandfather Andries I Keldermans. As court architects to the Burgundian and Habsburg rulers, the Keldermans dynasty perfected the structural engineering of Brabantine Gothic: their buttressed piers, lace-like stone parapets, and timber bell-frames inside St. Rumbold's Tower were engineered with such precision that the 97-meter structure has stood completely plumb for five centuries over alluvial river soil while absorbing the vibrations of eighty tons of swinging bronze bells.
The second figure is the Mechelen-born Baroque sculptor and architect Lucas Faydherbe (1617 to 1697), who trained for three years in Antwerp as the favored pupil and collaborator of Sir Peter Paul Rubens. Returning to Mechelen, Faydherbe gave the medieval Gothic interior its dramatic Counter-Reformation character, carving the monumental stone figures of the Twelve Apostles mounted along the nave piers, designing the towering black-and-white marble High Altar in 1665, and sculpting the expressive funerary monuments of the Archbishops in the choir.
The third figure is Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier (1851 to 1926, Archbishop of Mechelen from 1906 to 1926). A renowned Neo-Thomist philosopher at the Catholic University of Louvain before his appointment as Primate of Belgium, Mercier became an international symbol of moral defiance during the First World War when German shells pierced the southern walls and stained glass of St. Rumbold's Cathedral in 1914. After the war, between December 1921 and May 1926, Cardinal Mercier welcomed the Anglican layman Lord Halifax and Anglican theologians to the Archbishop's Palace beside the cathedral for the five historic rounds of the Malines Conversations, opening the modern era of official Catholic-Anglican ecumenical dialogue forty years before the Second Vatican Council.
IIIThe 538-Step Flat-Topped Belfry, Twin 49-Bell Carillons, Anthony van Dyck's Crucifixion, and the 1723 Oak Pulpit
St. Rumbold's Cathedral is laid out on a Latin cross plan measuring 118 meters in total exterior length, 41 meters across the transept, and 28 meters in height to the crown of the stone nave vaults. Built predominantly of pale Brabantine sandy limestone from the quarries of Lede and Gobertange, the interior combines the soaring verticality and carved cabbage-leaf pillar capitals of medieval Brabantine Gothic with a rich ensemble of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Flemish Baroque painting and sculpture.
Built between 1452 and 1520 to the designs of the Keldermans family, the western tower rises 97.28 meters with massive corner buttresses and four gilded clock dials on its sides. Visitors climb 538 spiral stone steps through six successive chambers, including the medieval Crane Room (housing the original wooden treadwheel hoist) and the Forge and Bell Chambers, emerging onto the modern glass-balustraded Skywalk atop the flat roof, which commands a panoramic view stretching from the Antwerp port cranes to the Brussels Atomium.
St. Rumbold's Tower is the only church belfry in the world housing two complete concert carillons totaling 98 bells and weighing over 80 metric tons. The lower bell chamber holds the historic 49-bell carillon featuring seventeenth- and eighteenth-century bells cast by Pieter and Francois Hemony, Willem Witlockx, and Andreas van den Gheyn, anchored by the 8,884-kilogram bourdon bell Salvator (cast in 1844). Higher up hangs the 40-ton, 49-bell New Carillon cast by the Royal Eijsbouts foundry in 1981 for international recitals led by the Royal Carillon School Jef Denyn.
The bright seven-bay nave is carried on cylindrical limestone piers crowned with sculpted foliage capitals, against which stand life-size seventeenth-century stone statues of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Twelve Apostles carved by Lucas Faydherbe. Against the southern nave piers stands the extraordinary Baroque carved oak pulpit (1721 to 1723) by Antwerp sculptor Michiel van der Voort the Elder: its base is sculpted as a hollowed crag and woodland thicket where Saint Norbert lies thrown from his horse at the moment of his conversion, while above rises Mount Calvary with Adam, Eve, the serpent, and intricate woodland wildlife carved in oak.
Displayed in the south transept is one of the supreme masterpieces of Flemish Baroque painting: the monumental canvas of Christ on the Cross between the Two Thieves (Christus aan het Kruis), painted between 1627 and 1630 by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599 to 1641). Originally commissioned for the Franciscan Friars Minor church in Mechelen and transferred to the cathedral after the French Revolution, the work is celebrated for its dramatic chiaroscuro sky and deep emotional pathos.
The fourteenth-century Rayonnant Gothic choir features intricate blind stone tracery along its triforium walls. At its focal point rises the 25-meter Baroque High Altar of black-and-white marble and gilded wood designed by Lucas Faydherbe in 1665, crowned by a statue of Saint Rumbold atop the portico. Displayed inside a glazed niche in the center of the altarpiece is the gilded brass Neo-Gothic Reliquary Shrine of Saint Rumbold (crafted in 1825 by Jan-Frans Van Geel to replace the medieval gold shrine melted down in 1580).
Encircling the choir is an ambulatory opening onto seven radiating chapels and housing a rare cycle of 25 late-fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century oil-on-oak panel paintings by the Flemish Primitives (including the workshop of Colijn de Coter) depicting scenes from the life, miracles, and martyrdom of Saint Rumbold, alongside thirty painted armorial shields from the 1491 Chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece presided over by Philip the Handsome. Along the choir walls and in the crypt rest the Archbishops of Mechelen, highlighted by the bronze-and-marble effigy tomb of Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier.
| Architectural Feature or Artwork | Date and Architect or Artist | Dimensions and Historical Significance |
|---|---|---|
| St. Rumbold's Tower (Sint-Romboutstoren) | 1452 to c. 1520 (Keldermans architectural dynasty) | 97.28 m high (of a planned 167 m), 538 steps, Skywalk platform, UNESCO World Heritage (1999) |
| Twin Concert Carillons (98 Bells) | 17th to 19th centuries (historic) and 1981 (Eijsbouts concert carillon) | Two 49-bell instruments weighing over 80 tons combined, anchored by the 8,884 kg Salvator bell |
| Baroque High Altar and Apostle Statues | 1665 (sculptor and architect Lucas Faydherbe) | Black-and-white marble altarpiece enshrining the 1825 gilded Reliquary of Saint Rumbold |
| Christ on the Cross Altarpiece | 1627 to 1630 (Sir Anthony van Dyck) | Monumental Flemish Baroque oil canvas in the south transept depicting Calvary |
| Naturalistic Oak Pulpit & 25 Gothic Panels | Pulpit 1721 to 1723 (M. van der Voort); panels c. 1475 to 1510 | Carved oak pulpit of St. Norbert's conversion; 25 Flemish Primitive panels of St. Rumbold's life |
IVThe Lie of the Land and the Facing
It should be stated clearly that the Catholic Church in the Low Countries and the medieval guild builders did not employ East Asian geomancy (feng shui) in siting or designing St. Rumbold's Cathedral. The sanctuary grew over the eighth-century monastic foundation of Saint Rumbold adjacent to the medieval market square, and its layout follows traditional Christian liturgical orientation, with the great belfry tower facing west-southwest and the high choir oriented toward the east-northeast. The observations below offer a comparative landform reading through the traditional framework of the Hall of Myriad Paths library.
Viewed within the macro-geography of the Flemish Diamond and Brabant plain at coordinates 51.0289 degrees north, 4.4783 degrees east, the city of Mechelen occupies a strategic alluvial threshold in the lower Scheldt basin where the tidal Dijle (Dyle) River converges with its tributaries before joining the Nete to form the Rupel River. In traditional flatland geomancy (pingyang landform reading), where high mountains are absent, water courses and subtle sand ridges govern the condensation of vitality: the historic core of Mechelen sits upon a slightly elevated sandy-loam terrace rising a few meters above the surrounding river marshes, forming a natural dry island that concentrated medieval trade and ecclesiastical authority between Brussels and Antwerp.
In terms of watercourse geometry and urban bright hall, the main channel of the Dijle River and its inner urban branches (the Binnendijle and historic vlieten streams that once flowed just steps from the church precinct) curve around the southern and western flanks of the cathedral like a protective jade-belt watercourse. To the southeast of the choir opens the broad paved expanse of the Grote Markt ringed by the Town Hall and Cloth Hall, acting as a vibrant outer bright hall where civic and spiritual axes meet, while the quiet green lawn of Sint-Romboutskerkhof to the north provides a tranquil buffer. Most remarkably, the 97.28-meter flat-topped tower at the western end functions as a colossal land-stabilizing pillar over the flat Flemish plain: in five-phase shape theory, its broad, level summit embodies the square, grounded stability of the Earth phase rather than a sharp Fire-phase needle, maintaining structural equilibrium over the soft riverbed while projecting the harmonic resonance of ninety-eight bronze bells across leagues of surrounding countryside.
VThe Feast of Saint Rumbold, Summer Carillon Concerts, and Primatial Liturgies in Mechelen
As the metropolitan cathedral of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, liturgical life at St. Rumbold's Cathedral follows the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar on the Gregorian system throughout the year, enriched by its living UNESCO-recognized heritage of sacred choral music and carillon recitals.
| Time of Year | Calendar System | Liturgical Feast or Cultural Event | Rites and Traditions at St. Rumbold's Cathedral |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Week and Easter Sunday (March or April) | Gregorian | Chrism Mass and Paschal Triduum Liturgies | The Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels presides over the Chrism Mass with the clergy of the archdiocese and solemn Easter liturgies accompanied by the Mechelen Cathedral Choir and the great pipe organ. |
| June 24 and July 1 | Gregorian (Patronal Feast) | Solemnity of Saint Rumbold, Bishop and Martyr (Sint-Romboutsfeest) | The patronal feast of the cathedral and city of Mechelen (celebrated liturgically in Belgium on July 1 or the Sunday closest to June 24), featuring veneration of the Reliquary Shrine of Saint Rumbold. |
| June through September (Monday evenings and weekends) | Gregorian | Summer International Carillon Recitals from St. Rumbold's Tower | City carillonneurs and international guest masters from the Royal Carillon School Jef Denyn perform live recitals on the 98 bells of the tower, best heard from the quiet gardens below. |
| Every 25 Years (most recently 2013, next in 2038) | Gregorian | The Hanswijk Cavalcade and Ommegang Pageant of Mechelen | A grand quarter-century historical and religious procession dating back to the fourteenth century in which the gilded Reliquary of Saint Rumbold and the statue of Our Lady of Hanswijk are carried through the city. |
| December 24 and December 25 | Gregorian | Christmas Eve Midnight Mass and Winter Carillon Concerts | Solemn candlelit Christmas Masses inside the Gothic nave accompanied by festive carillon melodies ringing out across the winter market squares of Mechelen. |
The living art of the Mechelen Carillon and Catholic pilgrimage in Belgium. One of the most memorable spiritual and cultural experiences at St. Rumbold's Cathedral takes place outside the walls during Saturday market mornings, Sunday afternoons, and warm summer Monday evenings, when the city carillonneur climbs into the playing cabin high inside the tower to play the 49-bell keyboard (klavier) using wooden batons and foot pedals. Pioneered in the late nineteenth century by legendary Mechelen master Jef Denyn (1862 to 1941), who founded the world's first carillon school beside the cathedral in 1922, Belgian carillon culture was inscribed by UNESCO in 2014 on the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage. Visitors and pilgrims gather in the sheltered courtyard of the Cultuurcentrum or the Archbishop's garden to listen in silence as sacred hymns, Bach preludes, and Flemish folksongs float down from the medieval limestone tower.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Onder den Toren 12, 2800 Mechelen, Antwerp Province, Kingdom of Belgium
- Getting there
- Mechelen is located midway between Brussels and Antwerp (approximately 25 kilometers from each city). Frequent intercity trains operated by Belgian National Railways (NMBS/SNCB) connect Brussels-Central, Brussels Airport (Zaventem), and Antwerp-Centraal to Mechelen Station (or the secondary station Mechelen-Nekkerspoel) in just 11 to 20 minutes. From Mechelen main station, a pleasant 12-to-15-minute walk northward along the pedestrian shopping street Bruul and across the Grote Markt (or a 5-minute ride on De Lijn bus 1) brings visitors directly to Onder den Toren at the foot of St. Rumbold's Cathedral.
- Coordinates
- 51.0289, 4.4783
St. Rumbold's Cathedral is open daily free of charge (typically from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM) for prayer, quiet contemplation, and viewing of its artistic treasures; climbing the 538 steps of St. Rumbold's Tower to the Skywalk requires a timed-entry ticket purchased in advance or at the tower desk (note that there is no elevator inside the medieval tower, so sturdy footwear and good physical fitness are essential). Inside the cathedral nave and chapels, visitors are asked to maintain respectful silence, mute mobile phones, remove hats, dress modestly, and refrain from sightseeing photography during Mass or liturgical services.
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?Quick Questions
Why does the tower of St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen have a flat top instead of a pointed spire?
According to the original fifteenth-century architectural drawings by the Keldermans family, the tower was designed to reach 167 meters (600 Mechelen feet) with a soaring openwork stone spire that would have made it the tallest church tower in the world. After nearly seventy years of construction between 1452 and about 1520, financial exhaustion and the load limits of the marshy subsoil forced builders to stop at 97.28 meters, leaving the tower with its iconic flat summit.
What is the story behind the nickname Maneblussers (Moon Extinguishers) associated with St. Rumbold's Tower?
On the foggy night of January 27 to 28, 1687, a passerby saw an orange-red glow behind the Gothic windows of St. Rumbold's Tower and raised the fire alarm. Hundreds of citizens rushed up the 500-plus steps carrying buckets of water, only to discover at the top that the cathedral was not on fire: the red glow was simply the full moon shining through the winter mist. Ever since, residents of Mechelen have proudly borne the nickname Maneblussers.
Who was Saint Rumbold, and where are his relics kept inside the cathedral?
Saint Rumbold (Sint-Rombout) was an eighth-century Christian missionary bishop of Irish or Scottish origin who evangelized the Dijle valley, founded an abbey in Mechelen, and was martyred around 775 CE. His relics are enshrined inside a gilded Neo-Gothic reliquary chest crafted in 1825, displayed in a central niche high above Lucas Faydherbe's 1665 marble High Altar.
What makes the carillon bells of St. Rumbold's Cathedral unique in the world?
St. Rumbold's Tower is the only belfry in the world equipped with two complete 49-bell concert carillons (98 bronze bells in total, weighing over 80 metric tons): a historic carillon featuring bells from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries anchored by the 8,884-kilogram Salvator bourdon bell, and a 40-ton concert carillon installed in 1981. It serves as the flagship instrument of the Royal Carillon School Jef Denyn, founded in Mechelen in 1922.
What are the most famous paintings and sculptures inside St. Rumbold's Cathedral?
The cathedral houses Sir Anthony van Dyck's monumental Flemish Baroque canvas Christ on the Cross (1627 to 1630) in the south transept, a rare cycle of 25 late-fifteenth-century Flemish Primitive panel paintings depicting the Life and Miracles of Saint Rumbold in the choir ambulatory, Michiel van der Voort's 1723 carved oak pulpit showing the Conversion of Saint Norbert, and Lucas Faydherbe's Baroque High Altar and Apostle statues.
What role does St. Rumbold's Cathedral play in the Catholic Church of Belgium?
Since May 12, 1559, when Pope Paul IV established the Archdiocese of Mechelen (now the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels), St. Rumbold's has served as the Metropolitan and Primatial Cathedral of Belgium, housing the official cathedra and burial crypt of Belgium's Archbishops and Cardinals, including Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier, host of the historic 1921-1926 Malines Conversations.