Tower former St. Peter's Banden church Church Square 5

In 959 AD, Heraclius was appointed the next bishop of Liege by Otto's brother Bruno (archbishop of Cologne). Bruno gave Heraclius the rights over several domains to provide the diocese of Liege with (tax) revenue, on the condition that he would establish Petrus churches here. After all: Bruno had a fondness for St. Peter. He had one of the "original" bands of St. Peter brought over to Cologne from Rome, and he had existing churches dedicated to St. Peter in his area of jurisdiction and also founded new ones. Presumably Son too thus received a church as early as the ^10th century.

Shortly after 1400, the - now stone - Son church was expanded with a small choir. A new replacement high church would be attached to that small choir 50 years later. To finance this, the administration of Son received permission from Duke Philip the Good in 1445 to sell 12 bunder (+/- 12 hectares) of common land. Buyer of that land was Adam Marcelis die Luwe. The highly constructed replacement for the small low Son church was built between 1446 and 1459; the richly ornamented tower (including marlstone) was not completed until 1526, equipped with a needle spire that crashed during a severe storm in 1800. Not until 1887 was a new, somewhat lower spire erected by order of pastor Dobbelsteen, still considerably higher than the current spire since 1975.

Architect Pierre Cuypers did good business with design commissions for neo-gothic churches in places such as Veghel (1855), Eindhoven (1858) and Ospel (1865). From 1887, Geldrop, Lierop and Uden would also receive a large new church, recognizable by the large dome between nave and choir, designed by architect Carl Weber. 

In this explosion of religious expression in the second half of the ^19th century, Father Dobbelsteen, who had become jealous of the church in Son, wanted to get rid of what he saw as its outdated and somber appearance. From 1860 on, the interior of the church was completely stripped; the ancient low choir (dating from long before 1445) was raised, pillars were milled out decoratively, and the roof beam construction was protected with cross vaults of wood, plaster, straw and lime. The whole church was painted in white, gray, green and red; furnished with a large number of wooden statues of saints; a large, high richly decorated main altar; a fine pulpit made of carved wood; an altar of Mary and an altar of Cornelius. Not exactly fireproof, but pleasing to the eye and still accommodating 250 worshippers - sufficient for the population of the time.

After the devastating fierce fire on Dec. 29, 1958, and the demolition of the nave and choir in 1966, only the tower remained, which was restored in 1974-1975.

The tower has since housed a carillon of 50 bells, played several times a week by a carillonneur. Every fifteen minutes the automatic playing

Behind the tower, the pavement shows the outline of the church.