214 Route 17. MONS. Cathedral.

the French in 1704. Prince Eugene captured Mons in 1709 after
the battle of Malplaquet; by the Treaty of Baden in 1744 it was
assigned to Austria; and it was twice afterwards taken by the French,
in 1746 and 1792. The site of the fortifications that encircled
the town has been converted into a pleasant promenade, on which,
near the station, rises a Statue of Leopold I. (Pl. 6; A, 2), by
Simonis, erected in 1877. Mons is the seat of a school of mines
(p. 215) and several other secondary schools.

The most interesting edifice at Mons is the late-Gothic Catu-
BDRAL OF St. WaLTRunIS (Ste. Vaudru; Pl. A, B, 2), situated on
the left as the town is entered from the station. It was begun about
1450 from a design by Matthew de Layens, the architect of the
Hotel de Ville at Louyain, and his assistant Gilles Pole. The choir
was completed in 1502, the transept in 1519, and the nave in 1589
(with finishing touches added in 1621). The projected tower was
never built, and the church possesses only a small spire above the
crossing and Gothic turrets on the transept. The ‘concierge’ is to
be found in the adjoining building on the S.

The *InTERIOR, which is 305 ft. long, 116 ft. wide, and 80 ft. high, is
a model of boldness and elegance. The slender clustered columns, 60 in
number, are without capitals, rising immediately to the vaulting and
keystones. — The choir has stained-glass windows of the 16th cent.,
the restoration of which is not wholly successful (Crucifixion, with
Maximilian and his son Philip the Handsome; Flight into Egypt, with
Maximilian’s wife, Mary of Burgundy, his daughter Margaret, and their
patron-saints). Behind the high-altar, above, is the modern reliquary of
St. Waltrudis (d. 685), which appears in processions on the state-carriage
preserved in the vestibule of the church. The reliefs on the high-altar and
various other sculptures distributed in the side-chapels originally belong-
ed to a rood-loft by Jacques Dubroeucg, which was destroyed by the French
in 1792. Dubreeucq sculptured also the statues in the choir and at the
piers below the crossing as well as the handsome Renaissance altar in
the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen (4th chapel on the left, in the ambulatory).
The 6th chapel contains a 15th cent. statue of St. Waltrudis, beneath a
late-Gothic canopy. The altar-pieces are by Van Thulden and other artists.

In the Place St. Germain, opposite the choir, is a monument to
Burgomaster Frangois Doles (Pl. 5; B, 2). Ascending thence to the
left and passing through an archway, we reach the highest ground
in the town, formerly crowned with fortifications on the alleged site
of Cxsar’s Castrum, and now laid out as a promenade. Fine views
of the busy environs of Mons. To the right rises the Belfry (Pl. 4),
275 ft. high, in the Renaissance style, erected in 1662 from a
design by Louis Ledoux, and restored in 1864 (adm. 25c.). It con-
tains a ‘carillon’, or set of chimes.

The centre of the town is formed by the Granp’ Piacs (P1.B, 2),
or Marxsr, still, as in medieyal times, the chief focus of municipal
life (band in the evening and on Sun. 12.30-1p.m.). A grand féte,
called ‘La Parade du Lumegon’, with St. George and the dragon,
is celebrated here on Trinity Sunday.

The Horr pz Vinx (Pl. B, 2), a late-Gothic edifice, was erected
in 1458-67, but never quite completed. The fagade, with 10 windows