Oostakker Basilica
The Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes is a Roman Catholic church at Oostakker, near Ghent in Belgium. Built in neogothic style at the end of the XIXe century it is the most important centre of Marian pilgrimage in Flanders. In 1873 the Marquise of Courtebourne-de Nédonchel had a Lourdes grotto built in the gardens of her château at Slotendries. People from Ghent and other nearby locations asked to be allowed to visit the grotto and pray there, and it was claimed that in 1875 Pieter De Rudder was miraculously healed of a compound fracture. To accommodate the resulting increase in the number of pilgrims, a neo-Gothic church based on plans by E. Van Hoecke-Peeters (slightly modified by J.