to Maestricht. TONGRES. Route 26. 327

by the Duke of Brabant, the inhabs. took refuge in the church
and successfully defended it against his soldiers; the buildings
suffered so much on these occasions that it was determined shortly
after to rebuilt the whole with the exception of the cloisters : these,
erected, c. 980, at the E. end of the church round a ‘rectangular
space, measure 151 ft. by 65 1/2, are nearly 10 ft. wide, and have
wooden roofs. The walls are pierced by a succession of small
round arches supported by columns alternately single and coup-
led; the capitals and bases are adorned with a variety of sculp-
ture; 2 doors give access to the garth; ahove one of these is
an anct. bas-relief repr. the Eternal Father enthroned he-
tween 2 adoring angels. The cloisters are terminated at the
E. angles by 2 chapels, one 2nd pointed, the other modern:
opposite these are 2 doorways opening into the trans. of the
church. On S. of the cloisters are the old Chapter-House
and Refectory, the exterior wall of which was demolished and
reconstructed in 1842; the masonry of this old wall, the last relic
of the Roman castellum, was carefully imitated, but 2 rows of
windows were inserted in the style known as patryscook’s Gothic!
an old Romanesque tower was also improved by the construction
of a doorway of equally good design. Inthe chapter-room is a
Romanesque altar with a reredos repr. the Nativity of
the B. V. surrounded by 6 smaller bas-reliefs of Prophets. The
pavement is formed of numerous incised slabs of Ecclesias-
tics, XIII-XV cent. In the exterior wall-is imbedded a stone with
a repr. of the sun carved on it, which was formerly over the door
of the chapel of S. Maternus pulled down in 1804, and is sup-
posed to have belonged to the temple of Apollo on the site of which
that chapel was erected. The church itself was commenced in
June 1240; the choir with its pentagonal apse, the nave, S. trans.
and aisles are all of XIII cent.; the N. trans., chapel and tower
of XV cent.; the latter, according to the inscription of foundation
in the wall, was commenced 9 May 1440; it was not. completed
till 1502; the spire was burnt down in 1677. In 1846 it was de-
termined to restore the church, and M. Dumont of Brussels was
chosen to direct the works; since then the houses stuck: against
the tower on the N. and S. sides have been cleared away; the
tower itself scraped from top to bottom has been, with the spouts,
iron ties, and zinc roofing of turrets, covered with a coat of yel-
low wash that has a most disagreeable effect; the moldings have
heen made shallower and thinner, and the tower so weakened
that it has been found necessary to block up the side entrances to
it by a solid wall of masonry. Amongst the worst features in the
restoration are the tracery in the windows of the aisles and the
open gallery round 3 sides of the tower. To the choir and interior