Abdij Mariënlof

The main building on the Groenplaats is the baroque Sint-Pieterskerk. In 1704, Count Ferdinand d’Aspremont-Lynden of Reckheim signed an agreement with the Bishop of Liège, stating that he was allowed to demolish the parish church on the castle estate, provided that he would build a new one elsewhere.

A number of farms on the Groenplaats were expropriated to free up space for the construction of a new church. Work commenced that same year. However, the count did not keep his promise. As soon as the choir and part of the nave were ready, he stopped the works due to lack of money. The actual reason was an old feud between the clergy and the count family.

The church remained unfinished until 1722, the year in which pastor Maghin was appointed pastor van Rekem. The latter was very pleased that Countess Antonia, a sister of Count Ferdinand, was prepared to intervene financially, so that the construction work could be resumed. Unfortunately, the church was not spared from disaster afterwards. In 1755 a fire broke out in the small town of Reckheim and together with 21 houses the church partially burned down. After the difficult start of 1704, the church now remained as a ruin until it was put back into use in 1774.

Because the church became too small years later due to the increasing number of parishioners from Rekem and Visé, a larger church was built in 1956 in the Kleinveld. After being the center of Rekem's parochial life for two centuries, the old parish church was taken over by the city council in the same year to be converted into a museum.

Under the motto "church becomes church again", the interior was restored to its original form and after a thorough restoration in 2015, it can now be admired in all its glory.

Sacred Heart Church was built on the initiative of industrialist and art collector Baron Evence Coppée between 1921 and 1925 and consecrated in 1925. Architect Blomme borrowed elements from different styles for the brick church. The church tower has a distinctive pear-shaped spire. The church furnishings combine eighteenth and nineteenth-century elements. The doorway is framed by a double round arch which is very much in keeping with the houses in the mining city’s garden suburb. The stained glass representing the life of Christ and the martyrdom of St Barbara is also noteworthy. See if you can find this patron saint of the mineworkers. She keeps an eye on Ghent artist Raf Mailleux’s mine workers’ sculpture from a niche in the façade.

This late Romanesque - early Gothic church boasts a rare and magnificent series of 38 murals and pillar paintings dating back to the 13th-17th centuries. Together with the oldest complete church organ in existence in Belgium (by Christian Ancion, 1644), these paintings amount to an impressive piece of world heritage.