Eglise St Catherine

Sainte-Catherine is a historic parish church in the Vieux-Lille district. Although the parish is documented in 1273, the present nave was built in 1485–1487, followed by the tower in 1500–1504 and a new choir in 1539–1542. Its hall-church plan gives the three parallel vessels equal height and width. Eighteenth-century extensions and nineteenth-century neo-Gothic decoration altered the interior; restoration in 1964–1970 removed parts of that later decoration. Rubens’s Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, formerly displayed in the church, is now in Lille’s Palais des Beaux-Arts.