The cathedral is dedicated to St Rumbold of Mechelen, a Celtic missionary whose relics are believed to rest within the building. It is a three-aisled cruciform church whose construction began in the 13th century and which was consecrated in 1312. Around 1335, a new campaign of enlargement was undertaken, introducing the choir with its seven radiating chapels. This design is possibly attributable to Jean d’Oisy (1310–1377), the influential master builder credited with adapting the French Rayonnant style to the Low Countries and shaping what became known as Brabantian Gothic. In St Rumbold’s, this phase established a spacious ambulatory with pointed arches and slender piers opening gracefully onto the choir, while the refined window tracery reflected the emerging geometrical precision of the style. The arrangement enhanced liturgical processions and demonstrated Mechelen’s growing prestige, for major ecclesiastical projects in the fourteenth century often served as both religious and civic statements. The vault of the choir, however, was not completed until 1451.
The construction of the monumental tower began in the 1450s under the direction of the Keldermans family, one of the most distinguished dynasties of architects in the Low Countries and central to the development of Brabantian Gothic. Jan II Keldermans provided the initial design, followed by the supervision of his son Andries I Keldermans (1400–1488). Substantial contributions were also made by Antoon I Keldermans (c.1440–1512), Antoon II Keldermans (d.1515), Rombout II Keldermans (c.1460–1531) and Laurens II Keldermans (d.1534). Their work gave the tower its ambitious verticality, intended to reach over 160 metres but left incomplete in height. In 1559, Sint-Romboutskerk was elevated to cathedral status, reflecting the city’s ecclesiastical importance.
The cathedral endured considerable damage during the religious and political upheavals of the late sixteenth century. In 1580, during the English Fury, it suffered serious losses, and in the Calvinist period between 1580 and 1585 it was used for Protestant worship, during which much of its art was destroyed or dispersed. The Catholic restoration after 1585 initiated a programme of redecoration that transformed the Gothic interior with new furnishings and altarpieces. Key to this renewal was the contribution of Michiel Coxcie (1497/1501–1585), known as the ‘Flemish Raphael’ for his Italianate compositions inspired by Raphael’s harmony and colour. Several of Coxcie’s final works, created in the 1580s, replaced altarpieces lost during the iconoclastic years, restoring both the visual richness and the devotional function of the cathedral.
Among the cathedral’s later treasures is the high altar designed by Lucas Faydherbe (1617–1697) in 1665, a masterwork of sculptural and architectural integration. The collection also includes Anthony van Dyck’s (1599–1641) ‘Christ on the Cross’ and paintings by other leading Flemish Baroque masters, underscoring the cathedral’s dual identity as a major Gothic monument and a repository of seventeenth-century religious art.
