Andenne is located on the right bank of the Meuse, 1 hour drive southeast of Brussels. The town is best-known for its production of ceramics and forthe Collegiate Church of Saint Begga. The present building was rebuilt between 1764 and 1778. It was designed by the famous architect Laurent-Benoît Dewez in the neoclassical style.
The building replaces the monastery founded in 692 by Sainte-Begge and the 7 churches that belonged to it. A legend explains this curious group of 8 religious buildings: When Saint Begge was looking for a place to found the monastery, God sent here a sign in the form of a hen that was hatching 7 chicks near a spring. But more likely, they were a reference to the 7 great churches of Rome: so the pilgrims could come to Andenne without having to go to Italy. The spring (formerly known as the “chick fountain”) still exists next to the collegiate church: It is now known as the Fontaine Sainte-Begge and served as the town’s main washhouse.
The new collegiate church, built in the 18th century, was built on a north-south axis. This orientation, perpendicular to the Christian tradition, is a mystery that has inspired the imagination of many writers. The most probable hypothesis, however, is that it allowed the frontage to face the Meuse, where most travelers passed. The consequence of this new orientation was that the inhabitants had to go around the church in order to have access to it. The architect therefore added two entrances in the aisles next to the transept.
The redirection was also problematic for women going to the washhouse. They were used to going down rue Lapierre and then, from the middle of the 19th century, also down rue des Sept Églises. Now they had to go around the building in order to get to the washhouse on the other side. Going straight through the church was shorter. And this route seems to have been tolerated, as it meant that the women did not have to go past the houses of the canons that lined the square.
However, the housewives were sometimes followed by their dogs, and it was not acceptable to allow animals to pass through a place of worship. Therefore, above the two side entrance doors, the inscription Les chiens hors di la maison de Dieu (“Dogs out of God’s house”) was painted in gold.
When this inscription was made is unknown. It may have been added at the same time as the large rectangular stone above the east door in 1784. What is certain is that it is mentioned in Victor Hugo’s 1842 book Le Rhin (the famous French writer having visited Andenne one or two years earlier).
Washing machines arrived after the Second World War and solved the problem once and for all. Today, the two inscriptions have almost disappeared, but they keep alive the memory of the women who had to cross through the church to get to the wash-house—without their dogs.
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