Cities of Belgium: Grant Allen's Historical GuidesAllen, Grant
History
Cities of Belgium: Grant Allen's Historical Guides
Allen, Grant
Belgium -- Guidebooks
Mad) of Spain, his mother, through whom he inherited the united
Peninsula. The statues L. and R. are those of his actual royal
predecessors. The figures to the L. are his paternal grandfather, the
Emperor Maximilian, from whom he derived his German territories, and his
paternal grandmother, *Mary of Burgundy, who brought into the family
Flanders, Burgundy, etc. Mary is represented with a hawk on her wrist,
as she was killed at twenty-five by a fall from her horse while out
hawking. (We shall see her tomb later at Notre-Dame.) The figures on the
R. are those of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the
maternal grandfather and grandmother of Charles, from whom he inherited
the two portions of his Spanish dominions. The medallions at the back
represent the personages most concerned in the Treaty of Cambrai, and
the Victory of Pavia which rendered it possible. (De Lannoy, the
conqueror, to whom François gave up his sword, and Margaret of Austria.)
The tapestry which surrounds the hall is modern; it was manufactured at
Ingelmünster after the pattern of a few old fragments found in the
cellars of the ancient building. The mediocre painting on the wall
depicts a sitting of the court of the Liberty of Bruges in this room
(1659).
* * * * *
The N. side of the square is now occupied by a small Place planted with
trees. Originally, however, the =old cathedral= of Bruges occupied this
site. It was dedicated to St. Donatian, the patron of the city, whose
relics were preserved in it; but it was barbarously destroyed by the
French Revolutionary army in 1799, and the works of art which it
contained were dispersed or ruined. Figures of St. Donatian occur
accordingly in many paintings at Bruges. Jan van Eyck was buried in this
cathedral, and a =statue= has been erected to him under the trees in the
little Place. In order, therefore, mentally to complete the picture of
the Place du Bourg in the 16th century, we must imagine not only the
Hôtel de Ville, the Chapelle du Saint Sang, and the Ancien Greffe in
something approaching their existing condition, but also the stately
cathedral and the original Renaissance building of the _Franc de Bruges_
filling in the remainder.
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