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Cathedral. TOURNAIL. 8. Route. 83
in 1879. The Place Crombez in front of it is embellished with a
monument, by Charlier and Horta, to the liberal statesman Jules
Bara (d. 1900). Thence the Rue Royale (Pl. C, 2) leads direct
through the quarters on the right bank to the Scheldt. At the S
end of the Rue del Hopital-de-Notre-Dame, in front of the cathedral,
is a Bronze Group, by Charlier, of a blind man led by a boy.
The **Cathedral (Notre Dame; Pl. B, 3), one of the noblest
specimens of medizval architecture, is a cruciform basilica borne by
pillars, with a retro-choir and radiating chapels, and has four mas-
sive towers (270 ft.), adjoining the central tower over the crossing,
and two corner-turrets on the fagade. The nave, consecrated in 1070,
and the transepts of the 11-12th cent., with their ambulatories and
semicircular terminations, both bear the stamp of the Romanesque
style, while two of the towers belong to the Transition era and one
is pure Gothic. In 1242-1325 the Romanesque choir was replaced
by an early-Gothic building, which surpassed the nave bothin length
and height. About the same time the Romanesque fagade was altered
and provided with a porch in the pointed style, restored in the
16th century. The parish church attached to the N. aisle of the
cathedral (Chapelle Paroissiale de Notre Dame) is a Gothic structure
of 1516-418. In 1633 and later the building was much modernized,
but in 1840 a thoroughgoing restoration was begun, in the course
of which a huge rose-window was inserted in the facade (4851) and
the interior was purged of the unsuitable additions with which it
had been disfigured.
*Sculptures of the Porte Mantile (12th cent.), the N. portal
in the Place des Acacias, and of the fagade behind the eiotied porch
towards the Place de l’Evéché, are attractive works of the school of
Tournai. The fine stone figures of the lower row of the latter
(prophets, fathers of the church, Adam and Eve) date from the
13th cent.; the equally fine but sadly mutilated sculptures in the
upper row 16th cent.) represent scenes from the early history of
the bishopric and a procession. At the top are inferior statues of
the 17th century.
The Inrzrtor, 426 ft. in length, consists of nave (originally flat-
roofed, but vaulted over in the 18th cent.) and aisles; nave 78 ft.
wide and 78 ft. high; breadth of transept 220 ft.; height of choir
107 ft. The capitals of the low and elaborately articulated pillars
in the nave are particularly rich and varied. Above the aisles are
galleries, over which the walls are relieved by a triforium. The
proportions of the transept are more graceful, and the galleries lower.
In the Chapelle St. Louis (locked), the first of the S. (right) ArsLE,
on the posterior wall, a Crucifixion by Jordaens. — In the TransErt, right,
Altar-piece with scenes from the life of the Virgin by Jf. de Negre (162 23).
The subjects of the stained-glass windows refer to the history of the
bishopric of Tournai, which received important privileges in the 6th cent.
from King Chilperic (d. 584) for services rendered in his war against his
brother, the Austrasian monarch Sigebert (8. transept), and in the 12th
cent. from Pope Eugenius III. (N. transept). The N. transept contains |