Eglise Saint-Nicolas (St. Nicholas Church), Brussels

Dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari, the patron saint of sailors (famously known as Santa Claus), this church has a history dating back to the 12th century.

Charming in appearance, the current building has very little left of its original structure. The 14th-century Gothic facade now covers the earlier Romanesque lines. A tall belfry, once present in the Middle Ages as the city's watch tower, is long gone after collapsing unexpectedly in 1714, killing one man and a pig.

The church underwent significant restoration in the 1950s with portions of its exterior reconstructed in a simple Gothic style. One distinctive feature of it is the deliberate orientation of three broad nave aisles built at an angle to the chancel so as to accommodate a nearby stream. An intriguing relic of the past is the cannonball embedded high up in the third pillar on the left side of the nave, a remnant from the French bombardment of 1695.

Inside the church, you can find valuable artworks such as 'The Virgin and Child' painting by the famous Flemish painter Rubens, and the Vladimir Icon from Constantinople dating back to 1131. Among other art pieces is a splendid gilded copper reliquary shrine, in the right-hand aisle, crafted in Germany during the 19th century to honor a group of Catholics martyred by Protestants in Gorinchem, Netherlands, in 1572.

In recent years, there were discussions about demolishing this historic church to make way for vehicular traffic. Fortunately, none of these plans came to fruition, and it remains preserved, much like the charming ancient architecture that surrounds it.