Vanished towers and chimes of FlandersEdwards, George Wharton
Religion
Vanished towers and chimes of Flanders
Edwards, George Wharton
Change ringing; Chimes; Church buildings -- Flanders; Flanders -- Description and travel
The pictures shown are usually of the lurid sort to suit the peasants,
and the profits must be considerable, as the charge is ten and
twenty-five cents for admission. On this square is the Hotel de Ville,
the Palace of Justice, and Conciergerie. This latter is a sort of square
"donjon" of great antiquity, crenelated, with towers at each corner and
the whole construction forming an admirable specimen of Hispano-Flemish
architecture.
The angle of the "Place" opposite the pavilion of the officers is
occupied by the Hotel de Ville and the "Palais de Justice," very
different in style, for on one side is a massive facade of severe aspect
and no particular period, while on the other is a most graceful Flemish
Renaissance construction, reminding one of a Rubens opposed, in all its
opulence, to a cold classic portrait by Gainsborough.
The Hotel de Ville, of 1612, exhibits in its "Pignons," its columns and
Renaissance motifs, a large high tower of octagonal form surmounted by a
small cupola. Its frontage pushes forward a loggia of quite elegant
form, with balustrades in the Renaissance style.
Above this grave looking gray building rises the tower of the
"Beffroi," part Gothic in style.
All the houses on the "Place" have red tiled roofs, and gables in the
Renaissance style very varied in form, and each one with a
characteristic window above, framed richly _en coquille_, and decorated
with arabesques.
Behind these houses is what remains of the ancient Church of St.
Walburga, half buried in the thick verdure of the garden. After
considerable difficulty we gained admittance to the ruin, because it is
not considered safe to walk beneath its walls. Even in its ruin it was
most imposing and majestic. We would have tarried here, but the
_custode_ was very nervous and hurried us through the thickets of bushes
growing up between the stones of the pavement, and fairly pushed us out
again into the small parkway, accepting the very generous fee which I
gave him with what I should call surliness. But we ignored this
completely, after the manner of old travelers, which we had been advised
to adopt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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