by Grant Allen
The Cathedral as an interior is disappointing. It contains no pictures of any importance, and its architecture is less striking within than without. The stained glass, indeed, is famous; none of it, however, is mediæval. The best windows date only from the High Renaissance; the remainder are 17th century or modern.
Walk first into the centre of the Church, where you can gain a good idea of the high Choir, with its Apse and Triforium of graceful Early Gothic architecture, as well as of the short Transepts, the two additional chapels, R. and L., the Nave and single Aisles, and the great west window.
Now, begin the tour of the church with the South Aisle, to the L. as you enter. The glass here is modern. It represents the story of the Stolen Hosts, some of the subjects being difficult to decipher. We see the Jew bribing a Christian, who removes the Hosts in a monstrance: then the Christian departing from the Jewish Synagogue with his ill-gotten gains. The third window I do not understand. After that, we see the Jews betrayed by one of their number; the Miracle of the Blood, with their horror and astonishment; the Recovery of the Hosts; and in the North Aisle, their Return to the Church in procession, and the various miracles afterward wrought by them. I cannot pretend to have deciphered all these accurately. The Nave has the usual Flemish figures of the Twelve Apostles set against the piers, most of them of the 17th century. The great west window has the Last Judgment, by Floris, a poor composition, overcrowded with indistinguishable figures.
The pulpit, by Verbruggen, is one of the usual unspeakable abominations of seventeenth century wood-carving. Below are Adam and Eve driven from Paradise: above, on the canopy, the Virgin and Infant Saviour wound the serpent’s head with the cross: the Tree of Life, supporting the actual platform, gives shelter to incredible birds and animals. This ugly object was made for the Jesuits’ Church at Louvain, and given to the Cathedral by Maria Theresa on the suppression of the Society of Jesus.
Return to the Transepts. The window in the North Transept represents Charles V., kneeling, attended by his patron, Charlemagne, who was a canonized saint, but who bears the sword and orb of empire. Behind him, Charles’s wife Isabella, with her patroness, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, holding the crown. This window, erected in 1538, from designs by Bernard van Orley, was the gift of the Emperor. That in the South Transept represents the Holy Trinity, with King Louis of Hungary kneeling in adoration, attended by his patron, St. Louis of France. Behind him is his Queen, Marie (sister of Charles V.), with her patron, the Blessed Virgin. This window also is by Van Orley.
Now, enter the Chapel by the North Transept, that of the Holy Sacrament, erected in 1535-39, in honour of the Miraculous (Stolen) Hosts, which are still preserved here, and which are carried in procession annually on the Sunday following the 15th of July. The windows in this chapel, each of which bears its date above, were placed in it immediately after its erection, and are the best in the Cathedral. They exhibit the style of the Transitional Renaissance. Each window shows, above, the story of the Stolen Hosts, with, below, the various donors and their patrons. First window as you enter: Above, the Bribery: below, King John III. of Portugal with his patron, St. John-Baptist; and Queen Catherine, his wife (sister of Charles V.), with her patron, St. Catherine, holding her sword of martyrdom and trampling on the tyrant Maximin: (all by Michael Coxcie). Second window: above, the Hosts insulted in the Synagogue: below, Louis of Hungary, with his patron, St. Louis; and Marie, his wife (sister of Charles V.), with her patroness, Our Lady (Coxcie). Third window: above, same subject as in the 3rd of the S. Aisle — perhaps the attack on the Jews: below, Francis I. of France, with his patron, St. Francis, receiving the Stigmata; behind him, Eleonora, his wife (sister of Charles V.), with her patroness, St. Helena (Bernard van Orley). Fourth window: above, Denunciation of the Jews: below, Ferdinand, brother of Charles V., with his patron, St. Ferdinand; and his wife, Anne, with her patron, St. Anna (Bernard van Orley). The end window represents the Adoration of the Holy Sacrament, and of the Lamb that was slain, in a composition suggested by the Van Eyck at Ghent. Below, to the L. are an Emperor and Empress (Charles V. and Isabella), a king and queen, and other representatives of the world secular: to the R. are a pope, a cardinal, bishops, prophets, and other representatives of the church or the world ecclesiastical.
Now, proceed to the opposite chapel, by the S. Transept, that of Our Lady of Deliverance (Notre-Dame de Délivrance). This chapel was erected in 1649-53, to balance that in the N. Transept. Its windows, made after designs by Van Thulden, in 1656, represent the continued decadence of the art of glass-painting. The subjects are taken from the History of Our Lady, above, with the donors and their patrons, princes of the House of Austria, below. Unlike the last, the subjects here begin at the inner end, near the altar. First window: the Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple. She mounts the steps to the High Priest: below are St. Joachim and St. Anna. Second window: The Marriage of the Virgin. Third window: The Annunciation, with the Angel Gabriel and the Dove descending in a glory. Fourth window: The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth: the figure of Mary, in its odd hat, taken from the Rubens in Antwerp Cathedral. The Austrian Princes and Princesses below, in the insipid taste of the 17th century, have commemorated their own names so legibly on the bases that I need not enumerate them.
Now, return to the N. Transept, to make the tour of the Ambulatory. At the entrance to the Apse, L., is a colossal statue of the patroness, Ste. Gudule, with the Devil under her feet. The stained glass of the Apse is good modern. Notice the fine pillars to your right. The hexagonal rococo Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, at the end of the Apse, has modern windows of, L. and R., the two patrons, St. Michael and Ste. Gudule, the latter with the lantern and Devil: and, Centre, the Trinity. Exit from the Apse: L., gilded statue of the other patron, St. Michael, to balance the Ste. Gudule. Beside it, curious wooden Easter Sepulchre, with Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, the Mater Dolorosa, and the Maries. Above it, the Risen Christ, with Roman soldiers on the pediment. Fine view from near this point of the Choir and Transepts.
The high Choir has in its Apse stained-glass windows (use your opera-glass), representing Our Lady, and the patron saints, with various kings and queens in adoration (middle of the 16th century). The portraits are (1) Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy: (2) Philippe le Beau, their son, with his wife, Johanna the Mad, of Castille: (3) Charles V. and his brother Ferdinand, sons of Philippe: (4) Philip II. of Spain, son of Charles V., with his second wife. The architecture here is Early Gothic and interesting.
E. THE UPPER TOWN
From the Grand’ Place, two main lines of streets lead towards the Upper Town. The first, which we have already followed, runs straight to the Cathedral; the second, known as the Rue de la Madeleine and then as the Montagne de la Cour, mounts the hill to the Place Royale.
The city of the merchants lay about the Hôtel-de-Ville, the Senne, and the old navigation. The town and court of the Counts of Louvain and Dukes of Brabant clustered about the Castle on the high ground overlooking the Lower City. On this hill, the Caudenberg, the Counts of Louvain built their first palace, close to what is now the Place Royale. Their castle was burnt down in 1731, but the neighbourhood has ever since been the seat of the Belgian court for the time being — Burgundian, Austrian, Dutch, or Coburger. All this quarter, however, has been so greatly altered by modern “improvements” that scarcely a relic of antiquity is now left in it, with the exception of a few mediæval churches.
In spite of the competition of the Central or Inner Boulevards, the Montagne de la Cour, which mounts directly from the Grand’ Place to the Cour (the residence of the Dukes or afterwards of the Emperors and the Austrian Viceroys), still remains the principal street for shopping in Brussels. It takes one straight into the Place Royale, one of the finest modern squares in Europe, occupying in part the site of the old Castle. Its centre is filled by the famous *statue of Godfrey de Bouillon by Simonis: the great Crusader is represented on horseback, waving his banner, and crying his celebrated cry of “Dieu le veut!” The uni
mpressive Church, with Corinthian pillars, a crude fresco in the pediment, and a green cupola, which faces you as you enter, is St. Jacques sur Caudenberg. To R. and L. you open up vistas of the Rue de la Régence and the Rue Royale. The former is closed by the huge mass of the new Palais de Justice. The latter ends in the great domed church of Ste. Marie de Schaerbeck.
In order to gain a proper conception of the Upper Town, one of the best-arranged in Europe, you must take the Place Royale and the Ancienne Cour (just below it) as your starting-point. The Place, the Park, and the streets about them were all laid out, under Austrian rule, at the end of the 18th century (1774) by the architect Guimard, who thus made Brussels into the handsome town we now see it. Turning to the R. from the Place Royale, towards the Rue de la Régence, you come first to the gateway of a courtyard, guarded by sentinels. Disregarding these, push past them into the court as if the place belonged to you. The quadrangle you have entered is the site of the old Palace of the Dukes of Brabant, for which the present building, known as the Ancienne Cour, was substituted by the Austrian Stadtholders in 1731 after the great fire. The first building to your L. is occupied by the Royal Museum and Library. The portion of the building at the end of the court, in a semi-circular recess, contains the Modern Picture Gallery (open daily from 10 to 4, free). In this gallery are collected the chief works of the modern Belgian School of Painters, which the tourist should not omit to study, but a full description of which lies wholly outside the scope of these Guide Books.
[This modern Belgian School was started in Antwerp, after the Revolution of 1830. It answered at first to the romantic movement in France (headed by Delaroche, Géricault, and others:) but the Belgian painters dealt mainly in historical pictures drawn from the struggles for liberty in their own country. The most distinguished of these “romantic” Belgian artists were Louis Gallait and Edouard de Bièfve, whose chief national works are to be seen in this gallery. Though they belong to a type which now strikes us as mannered and artificial, not to say insipid, they may help to impress historical facts on the spectator’s memory. A very different side of the national movement will meet us at Antwerp. The later Belgian School has been gradually swamped by Parisian tendencies.]
Returning to the Place Royale, and continuing along the Rue de la Régence, the first building on the L. closed with a grille, is the Palace of the Comté de Flandre. Nearly opposite it (with four granite pillars) is the Palais des Beaux-Arts, containing the Ancient Pictures (already noticed). Further on to the R. we arrive at the church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires (“Église du Sablon”), to be described in detail hereafter. The pretty and coquettish little garden on the L. is the Square or Place du Petit Sablon. It contains a modern monument to Counts Egmont and Hoorn, the martyrs of Belgian freedom, by Fraikin, and is worth a visit. The little statuettes on the parapet of the square represent artisans of the old Guilds of Brussels. The building at the back of the Place is the Palace of the Duke d’Arenberg: its central part was Count Egmont’s mansion (erected 1548). Further on, to the L., come the handsome building of the Conservatoire de Musique and then the Jewish Synagogue. The end of the street is blocked by the gigantic and massive façade of the new Palais de Justice, one of the hugest buildings of our period, imposing by its mere colossal size and its almost Egyptian solidity, but not architecturally pleasing. The interior need not trouble you.
Northward from the Place Royale, again, stretches the Rue Royale, along which, as we walk, we have ever before us the immense gilt dome of Ste. Marie de Schaerbeck. This fine street was admirably laid out in 1774 by the architect Guimard, who was the founder of the modern plan of Brussels. It is a fine promenade, along the very edge of the hill, beautifully varied, and affording several attractive glimpses over the earlier town by means of breaks in the line of houses, left on purpose by Guimard, some of which have, however, been unfortunately built up. Starting from the Place Royale, we have first, on our R., the Hôtel Bellevue; beyond which, round the corner, facing the Park, extends the unprepossessing white façade of the King’s Palace (18th century, rebuilt). Then, again on the R., we arrive at the pretty little Park, laid out by Guimard in 1774, on the site of the old garden of the Dukes of Brabant. This is a pleasant lounging-place, animated in the afternoon, when the band plays. It contains ponds, sculpture, nursemaids, children, and one of the principal theatres.
Continuing still northward, we pass the Statue of Belliard, in the first break, and then the Montagne du Parc, L., leading direct to the Lower Town. At the end of the Park, the Rue de la Loi runs R., eastward, towards the Exhibition Buildings. The great block of public offices in this street, facing the Park, includes the Chamber of Representatives (Palais de la Nation) and the principal Ministries. Beyond these we get, on the L., a glimpse of the Cathedral, and on the R. a number of radiating streets which open out towards the fashionable Quartier Léopold. Then, on the L., we arrive at the Place du Congrès with its Doric column, commemorating the Congress which ratified the Independence in 1831. It can be ascended (193 steps, spiral) for the sake of its admirable *view, the best general outlook to be obtained over Brussels. (A few sous should be given to the guardian.) The prospect from the summit (morning light best) will enable you to identify every principal building in the city (good map by Kiessling, 72, Montagne de la Cour).
Continuing our route, the street to the R. leads to the little Place de la Liberté. Beyond this, the Rue Royale goes on to the Outer Boulevards, and finally ends at Ste. Marie de Schaerbeck, a gigantic modern Byzantine church, more splendid than beautiful, but a good termination for an afternoon ramble.
The Outer Boulevards of Brussels, which ring round the original 14th century city, have now been converted into magnificent promenades, planted with trees, and supplied with special lanes for riders. These Boulevards, perhaps the handsomest in the world, replace the ancient walls, erected in 1357-1379, when the town had already reached such considerable limits. Most of what is interesting or important in Brussels is still to be found within the irregular pentagonal ring of the Boulevards. A pleasant way of seeing the whole round is to take the electric tram, from the Gare du Nord, by the Upper Boulevards, to the Gare du Midi. You first mount the steep hill, with the Botanical Gardens on your L., backed by the extensive hot-houses. The line then crosses the Rue Royale, looking L. towards Ste. Marie de Schaerbeck, and R. towards the Place Royale. As you turn the corner, you have on your L. a small triangular garden, and on your R. the circular Place des Barricades, with a statue of the great anatomist Vesalius, physician to Charles V., and an indirect victim of the Inquisition. The rail then bends round the Boulevard du Régent, with glimpses (to the R.) of the Park, and (to the L.) of the Squares in the Quartier Léopold. You next pass, R., the Palais des Académies, in its neatly kept garden, beyond which you arrive at the private gardens of the Royal Palace and the Place du Trône. Hence you continue to the Place de Namur and the Fontaine de Brouckere, and continue on to the Place Louise, at which point the open Avenue Louise leads direct to the pleasant Bois de la Cambre. The Boulevard de Waterloo carries you on to the Porte de Hal, the only one of the old gateways still standing. This is a massive fortress of irregular shape, built in 1381, and it was used by the Spanish authorities in the time of Alva as the Bastille of Brussels. The interior (open free, daily) contains a fine winding staircase and a small collection of arms and armour, with a little Ethnographical Museum, which is worth ten minutes’ visit in passing. Hence, the Boulevard du Midi conducts you straight to the Gare du Midi, from which point you can return, on foot or by tram, through the Inner Boulevards or diagonally through the old town, to your hôtel.
The remainder of the Outer Boulevards, leading from the Gare du Midi to the Gare du Nord by the western half of the town, is commonly known as the Lower Boulevards, (Note the distinction of Upper, Lower, and Inner.) It passes through a comparatively poor quarter, and is much less interesting than the other half. The only objects of note on its circuit are the slaughter houses and the basins of the canal. N
evertheless, a complete tour of the Boulevards, Upper, Lower, and Inner, will serve to give you a better general conception of Brussels within the old walls than you can otherwise obtain.
I cannot pretend in this Guide to point out all the objects of interest in Modern Brussels, within this great ring. Speaking generally, the reader will find pleasant walks for spare moments in the quarter between the Rue Royale or the Rue de la Régence and the Upper Boulevards. This district is high, healthy, and airy, and is chiefly given over to official buildings. On the other hand, the quarter between these two streets and the Inner Boulevards, especially southward about the Place St. Jean and the Rue de l’Étuve, leads through some interesting portions of 17th century and 18th century Brussels, with occasional good domestic architecture. The district lying W. of the Inner Boulevards is of little interest, save in its central portion already indicated. It is the quarter of docks, entrepôts, and the more squalid side of wholesale business.
The immense area of Brussels outside the Outer Boulevards I cannot pretend to deal with. Pleasant walks may be taken at the E. end of the town about the Chaussée de Louvain, the Square Marie-Louise, the Exhibition Grounds, the Parc Léopold (near which is the too famous Musée Wiertz), and the elevated land in the eastern quarter generally. The Bois de la Cambre, the true park of Brussels, makes a delightful place to walk or drive in the afternoon, especially on Sundays. It somewhat resembles the Bois de Boulogne, but is wilder and prettier. Perhaps the most satisfactory way of visiting it is to take the tram to the gate of the wood, and then walk through it.
