Church of Saint Joseph, Waterloo

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.

An unscrupulous Parisian businessman Thomas Gillet bought it at a knock-down price, having already acquired the neighbouring abbeys of Aywiers and Wauthier-Braine.

From then on mass was celebrated secretly in a barn at the farm of Philippe Pastur's widow by the brave abbot Bierlaire, an opponent of the French occupied like most of his Brabançon fellow-priests.

To cash in on his investments, the speculator dismantled the buildings and sold the materials, stripping the lead off the royal chapel's roof to sell to army suppliers to make rifle bullets, but local opposition was so strong that he hesitated to continue.

The baroque building proved too small to accommodate the congregations of up to 1,500 coming to mass here (a first expansion project had already been designed by Louis Montoyer in 1789 shortly before the Revolution).

Having for a moment thought of demolishing the chapel anew and rebuilding a church at Mont-Saint-Jean, the idea of expansion resurfaced and was felt to be an easier option, since the town had access to sufficient land to do so.

Thirty years later, between 1855 and 1858, the structure was again restored and extended, giving it three neo-classical naves, a dome on the west side, and a square brick tower with (from 1899) a 22m high copper spire.

Despite the rotonda and portico being named as historic monuments in 1956, the church was in a poor state due to the two World Wars, storms and the first effects of car air-pollution.

The architect Albert Degand was put in charge of removing the 19th century additions which spoiled the structure, such as the rood screen, commemorative plaques, and the coatings covering the stone.