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The Our-Lady-of-the-Sablon church, or shorter Sablon Church,
dominates the Sablon Square in the center of Brussels. The
Sablon area is nowadays the exclusive antiques shop area
of Brussels with its many shops, art galleries, busy cafés
and restaurants.
Until the end of the 13th century the Sablon was a scarcely
populated area just outside the 12th century city walls.
In 1304, however, the Brussels guild of Archers, had a little
chapel built here in honor of the Holy Virgin.
The little chapel very soon turned into a major pilgrimage
site. In 1348 a pious woman called Beatrijs Soetkins received
a vision from the Holy Mother. She asked Beatrijs to steal
a statue of the Madonna from a church in Antwerp and to
bring it over to the Sablon chapel in Brussels. It was soon
believed that the statue was miraculous, which, of course,
started to attract flocks of pilgrims to the Sablon.
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