The Yser and the Belgian Coast: An Illustrated History and GuidePneu Michelin (Firm)
History
The Yser and the Belgian Coast: An Illustrated History and Guide
Pneu Michelin (Firm)
Belgium -- Guidebooks; World War, 1914-1918 -- Battlefields -- Guidebooks; Yser, Battle of the, Belgium, 1914
[Illustration: +The lofty spire of Notre-Dame Church dominates the
surrounding country. Its reflection is seen in the calm waters of the
"Minnewater" with that of St. Saviour's+ _(on the left)_ +and the
Belfry+ _(on the right)_.]
The church of Notre-Dame with its enormous buttressed tower surmounted
by a crocketted spire, is 400 feet high and with its satellites, St.
Saviour and the Belfry, dominates the entire city and surroundings. It
is said to be the largest brick construction in existence.
[Illustration: +Notre-Dame Church. The Nave.+]
The church is a strange mixture of restorations, additions and
alterations, which have changed its character and destroyed its
harmony. The general style is early Gothic, and reveals its 13th
century origin. Two side-aisles were added to the three original
naves, the first about the middle of the 14th century, and the second
a century later. The façade nearest the hospital, flanked with round
turrets, was badly mutilated. Recent attempts have been made to restore
it, and at the same time to suppress certain unbecoming, extraneous
masonry-work, but through lack of documents, the work was necessarily
carried out in a more or less hypothetical manner. At the foot of the
gigantic tower and in striking contrast with its severe nudity is the
Radial Gothic _Baptistère_, an ancient protruding porch dating from the
15th century, the double arcade of which was walled up to form a chapel
for the font.
In the interior one is struck, on entering, by the work of simple
juxtaposition which added a side-aisle to the original one, by opening
the arcades in the old wall and setting new pillars against the ancient
buttresses. The whole of the interior bears marks of similar treatment.
The vaulting of the naves was reconstructed in the 18th century,
when the present heavy triforium was built. The small arcades which
ornamented the walls were filled in, but portions have recently been
uncovered and restored.
The building is 237 feet long and 165 feet wide. An 18th century
rood-loft surmounted with an organ-case separates the nave from the
choir. Above the organ a triumphal cross (1594) is suspended from the
vaulting. The choir stalls, like the cathedral, bear the arms of the
Knights of the Golden Fleece, in commemoration of the 11th. Chapter
held in Notre-Dame in 1468.
The principal interest of the church lies in the works of art which it
contains: _The Virgin and Child_ by Michael Angelo, and the _Tombs of
the last two Sovereigns of the House of Burgundy: Charles-le-Téméraire
and his daughter Marie, wife of Maximilian of Austria_, whose mausoleum
at Innsbruck, is likewise a marvel.
[Illustration: +The Virgin and Child.+
_By Michael Angelo._]
[Illustration: +Tomb of Charles-le-Téméraire.+]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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