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Belfry. GHENT. 6. Route. 63
descend the steps. To the left is the monument of Bishop Geeraard
van Eersel (d. 1778).
The Crypt (fee) contains the tombstones of many bishops and patricians
of Ghent. — The Sacrisry contains the Treasury, with the silver reliquary
of St. Macarius (Chasse de St. Macaire), a Renaissance work of 1616, and
the so-called cope of St. Livinus (1525).
The Tower (446 steps) affords a finer *View than the Belfry (apply to
the verger in the aueristy: ; comp. p. 5d).
The Pracz Sr. Bavon (Sint Baafs-Plaats; Pl.C,D, 4) contains
a monument by Is. de Rudder (4899) to the historian and poet
J. Fr. Willems (1793-1846), the champion of the Flemish move-
ment (p. xvii). On the N. side of the square is the Flemish Theatre
(4897-99), designed by Edm. de Vigne; and on the W. side is the
Halle aux Draps or Cloth Hall, erected in 1426-44 and completed
in 1900-3. The latter contains a crypt (now a restaurant), a large
hall, and the collections of the Fraternity of St. Michael (Confrérie
des Escrimeurs dite de St. Michel), founded in 1613.
The Belfry (Beffroi; Pl. C, 4; comp. p. xxvi), a lofty square
tower (300 ft.) which has attained two-thirds only of the projected
height, rises behind the Cloth Hall, in the Rue St. Jean. It was
built in 1320-39 and in 1853 was provided with an iron spire.
The chimes consist of 44 bells, recast in 1661 from the metal of the
Roland, the great bell of 1314. — The concierge, who accompanies
visitors to the top of the tower (4 fr., 2-6 pers. 2 fr.), lives in the
house opposite (Place St. Bavon 4). In the interior of the tower
are two square rooms, one above the other, with Gothic windows.
The third gallery, at a height of 270 ft., is reached by 356 steps;
the total height to the point of the spire is 385 ft. The staircase is
dark and rather steep. The spire is surmounted by a vane, consist-
ing of a gilded dragon, 10 ft. in length, made at Ghent in 1378.
The View embraces a great portion of Flanders, as well as an ad-
mirable survey of the city. When the Duke of Alva proposed to Charles
V. that he should destroy the city which had occasioned him so much
annoyance, the monarch is said to have taken him to the top of the
belfry, and there to have replied: ‘Combien faudrait-il de peaux d’ Espagne
pour faire un Gant de cette grandeur?’ — thus rejecting the cruel sug-
gestion of his minister.
On the side next the Marché-au-Beurre(Botermarkt; Pl. ©, 4) an
out-building was added to the Cloth Hall in 1741 for the purposes
of the prison (Prison Communale). Over the portal is a relief of the
so-called ‘Caritas Romana’, called by the people the ‘Mammelokker’.—
Opposite is situated the —
*Hotel de Ville(Pl. C, 4), which belongs to three distinct periods.
The kernel of the building dates from 1482-84. The picturesque but
unfinished N. fagade towards the Rue Haut-Port (p. 70), constructed
in 1516-38, in the florid-Gothic(Flamboyant) style, from designs by
Dominicus de Waghemaker(p.171) and Rombout Keldermans (p.162),
was restored in 1870 under the superintendence of Viollet-le-Duc
and Pauli; it is, perhaps, the most beautiful piece of Gothic archi- |