Church of Saint Joseph, Waterloo

The Church of Saint Joseph of Waterloo (French - Église Saint-Joseph de Waterloo) is an 18th-century Belgian church in Waterloo, Wallonia dedicated to Saint Joseph.

A forest chapel dedicated to saint Anne was burned down shortly before this church's construction. The inhabitants of Waterloo wished to rebuild it but were prevented from doing so by financial difficulties. The wood-producers in the area paid a tax - every hundredth denier - on their sales to raise money, but even after 20 years the total sum raised was not enough.

The new governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands, Don Francisco Antonio de Agurto, marquis de Gastañaga, then intervened. The marquis decided that building a new chapel on the site dedicated to saint Joseph (a spiritual model to Agurto's sovereign Charles II) would be a good way of remedying the sickly Charles's continuing and desperate sterility (despite his two marriages he had produced no heir). The ceremony of laying the first stone took place on 26 June 1687, in the presence of the Archbishopr of Mechelen. Like all buildings of this era, the edifice's architecture (attributed to the Walloonn architect Philippe Delsaux) borrows from the language of French Baroque classicism - a rotonda, a dome and above all a colonnaded portico refer to classical antiquity and give the edifice a wholly royal solemnity. This is reinforced by the presence of two lions on the portico's pediment. It is an imposing monument, in contrast to the modest size of the hamlets which it serves. Inaugurated with great ceremony on 19 February 1690, the marquis's pious intentions had no effect on Charles' sterility or on his own career - he was recalled to Madrid for not defending Mons well enough to prevent its capture by the French.

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