The Pilgrimage to Montaigu

According to tradition, in the fourteenth century a small statue of Mary hung on an oak tree on the Sharp Hill. A shepherd tried to take it away, but no matter what he did the statue always returned to the tree. The news spread and people came to look.

Soon healings were reported. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick recovered. The oak with the statue became a place of pilgrimage. The pilgrims came first in dozens, then in hundreds, then in thousands.

In 1603 Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella visited the hill and believed they owed a military victory to Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel. They commissioned a basilica unlike any other in the Low Countries — a heptagonal domed church, the first of its kind.

The construction took years. Around the church an entire town was laid out with seven streets radiating like a star towards the basilica. The floor plan symbolises the seven joys of Mary — each street a joy, each corner a prayer.

Four hundred years after its founding the pilgrims still come. On foot, by bicycle, by bus — more than one million visitors a year. In November, around the feast of Our Lady, the crowds are greatest. The candles burn day and night.

Scherpenheuvel is more than a church on a hill. It is a place where faith becomes tangible — in the worn steps, the flickering flames, the whispered prayers. As long as there are people who seek hope, they will climb the hill.