172 Route 73. ANTWERP. Old Town:

Bourse it is embedded in houses, but has an entrance on each of
the four sides. The hall, which is covered with glass, is 56 yds.
long and 44 yds. wide, and i is surrounded by an arcade in two stories,
with columns of different designs and Moorish-Gothic trefoil arches.
The ceiling is borne by an elegant wrought-iron framework, and the
walls are adorned with the arms of Antwerp, the Belgian lion, and
the arms of the different provinces of Belgium. In the angles between
the arches are the arms of the chief seafaring nations. Except during
business-hours (see p. 168), the building is used as a public thorough-
fare; ascents to the galleries adjoining the N., W., and S. portals.
In a projection from the E. gallery is a bust of the architect.

From the Pont de Meir (or Meirbrug), the short street at the
W. end of the Place de Meir, we may proceed either vid the Marché-
aux-Souliers (Schoenmarkt), with its numerous shops, or via the
Marché-aux- Buf (Hieren- Markt), to the PLack VzERTE ( Groenplaats,
Pl. B, 4; band, see p. 168), formerly the ae of Notre Dame,
adorned with a Statue of Rubens, in bronze, by W. Geefs (1840).
The scrolls and books, together with the brush, palette, and hat which
lie at the feet of the statue, are allusions to the activity of the master
as a diplomatist and statesman, as well as as a painter. — The site
of the General Post Office, on the S. side of the Place, was, in the
16th cent., occupied by the ‘factory’ of the great commercial house
of the Welsers of Augsburg. — On the N. side, almost in the centre
of the crowded oldest part of the city, which extends from the
Scheldt to the Rempart Ste. Catherine (Pl. B, C, 3,4) on the E., and to
the Rempart du Lombard (Pl. B, 4) on the S., rises the —

“Cathedral (Notre Dame or Onse lieve Vrowwe Kerk; Pl. B, 3),
the largest and most beautiful Gothic church in the Netherlands.
It is of cruciform shape, with triple aisles and ambulatory. It was
begun in 1352 under the superintendence of Jean Amel or Appel-
mans of Boulogne. After his death in 1398 the work was continued
by his son Peter, who was succeeded by Jean Tac in 1434 and
Master Everaert in 1449. To this period (4352-1449) belong the
choir with its ambulatory and chapels, the sacristies, and the tower
up to the first gallery. The aisles were built in 1425-1500. At the
beginning of the 16th cent. the building-operations were directed
by Herman de Waghemaker (d. 1503) and his son Dominic, the chief
evidences of whose skill are the dome above the crossing and the
late-Gothic upper part of the N. tower, the final pinnacle dating
probably from 1592. The S. tower was left unfinished in {ATA,
when only a third of the contemplated height had been reached.
The nave and transepts were not vaulted till 1611-16. In 1533 the
church was seriously damaged by fire, in 1566 by puritanical zealots,
and again in 1794 by French Republicans. A restoration has been
begun under Fr. Durlet (d. 1867) and E. Hife, and the main fagade
and part of the N. side have been laid bare, but the rest of the
exterior is still disfigured by the mean houses clustered around it.