1944. Hulst was liberated the following day. Basilica The church was built as a Roman Catholic church, but became a Dutch Reformed church during the Eighty Years' War at the hands of Frederik Hendrik. This remained so until the time of Napoleon, when it was turned into a simultaneous church: the choir was given to the Catholics and the nave remained available to the Protestants. A wall was built in between. The church has been completely Catholic again since 1929 when they bought the building from the Protestants who now have their own church on the Houtmarkt. As a result of this, Pope Pius XI elevated the church to a basilica on 24 November 1935. Spire The spire has been replaced several times. The first spire was destroyed in 1668 by lightning. In 1724 a new spire was installed in the classicist style. It was destroyed by fire in 1876. A new tower was then placed after a design by Pierre Cuypers, because the tower was a viewpoint over the Western Scheldt. It was destroyed in 1944 by Polish liberators. In 1957 Jan Brouwer won a competition for a new design of the spire, and Brouwer's design, entitled De Prediker (The Ecclesiastes), was built. The tower is crowned by a statue of Christ surrounded by angels and tuning forks around the bells. Parts of Cuypers' design, as well as the 14th-century tower, are still visible. The spire consists of eight freestanding outer columns and eight slightly shorter inner columns. The outer columns are about 14 meters high. A bundle of twelve steel wires runs from top to bottom. The inner columns are interconnected with bronze bridge bars from which the bells of the carillon are hung. Sculptor Willem Reijers made the concrete angel statues approximately eight meters high which crowns the tower together with a bronze cross. Carillon In 1670 Pieter Hemony, who was a bell-founder in Amsterdam at the time, supplied a chimes for the tower, which was to be destroyed by fire in 1876. Space had been reserved for a carillon in Pierre Cuypers' tower, but it never happened to install a new carillon in this tower. After the Second World War, a new carillon was purchased which was cast in 1958 by Petit & Fritsen. It consists of 36 bells with the size: A1 (470 kg) -b1-chromatic-a4 Connected to the keyboard as C2-d2-chrom.-c5. Organ The organ from