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Ste. Gudule. BRUSSELS. 10. Route. 101
To the W. at this point opens the new Rue des Colonies (P1. E, 3;
tramway station, see p. 93), superseding the former Impasse du Pare,
and farther on diverges the busy Rue Treurenberg, both of which
descend towards the church of Ste. Gudule. Still farther on, ona
terrace to the left of the Rue Royale, rises the Colonne du Congres
(Pl. E, 3), 148 ft. in height, erected in 1850-59 by Jos. Poelaert
(p. 105) to commemorate the Congress of 1830 (p. xxv). The
column is surmounted by a bronze statue of Leopold I., by W. Geefs.
The nine figures in relief below, representing the provinces of
Belgium, are by Simonis. The female figures in bronze at the four
corners are emblematical of the Freedom of the Press, Freedom of
Education, both by Jos. Geefs, Freedom of # jation, by Fraikin,
and Freedom of Public Worship, by Simonis. — The palaces on
each side of the terrace are by Poelaert, and the flight of steps
descending to the lower town is by J. P. Cluysenaar.
From the Colonne du Congrés the Rue de Ligne leads to the church
te. Gudule (Pl. E, 3; St. Michel et Ste. Gudule), an imposing
Gothic building consisting of nave and aisles, situated on a somewhat
abrupt slope overlooking the lower part of the town. The church was
begun about the year 1220, on the site of a church of St. Michael,
which was dedicated in 1047 also to St. Gudula (d. 742), the tutelary
saint of Brussels. A few traces of the transitional style of this period
are still observable in the ambulatory. The rest of the choir (best seen
from the Rue Treurenberg, see abov e), the transept, the arcades of
the nave, and the S. aisle are eatly-Gothic, and were completed in
1273. The N. aisle and the vaulting and windows of the nave
were constructed between 1350 and 1450. The windows of the
transept and the W. towers, 226 ft. in height, date from the end of
the 15th cent., the large (N.) chapel of the Sacrament from 1534-39,
the (S.) chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Délivrance from 1649-53. The
fagade, approached by a modern flight of steps (1861), resembles
in its principal features rather the German than the French Gothic
style. — Admission, see p. 97.
The INTERIOR is of simple but noble proportions and measures 354 ft.
in length by 164 ft. in breadth. The nave rests on twelve round pillars
and six pi strengthened by buttresses, the choir on ten round columns.
The beautiful *Stained Glass dates from the 16th, 17th, and 19th cent-
uries. The finest is that in the GHaPELLE DU £7-SaACRAMENT-DE-MIRACLE
N.; joining the choir on the left), consisting of windows presented
in 1540-47 by four of the most powerful Roman Catholic potentates of
Europe, in honour of certain wonder- working Hosts (see below). Each
window bears the portraits of the donors with their patron - saints:
1st window (beginning from the left), John III. of Portugal and his
queen Catherine, a sister of Charles V.; 2nd, Louis of Hungary and his
queen Maria, another sister of Charles V.; 3rd, Francis I. of France
and his queen Eleonora, a third sister of Charles V.; 4th, Ferdinand I.
of Austria, brother of Charles V., and his queen. The first two windows
€ executed by Jan Haeck from designs by Michael van Coxie, the third is
by Bernard van Orley, and the fourth by Jan Haeck after the design of an
unknown master. The representations in the upper half of the windows
depict the legendary story of the Hosts, which were stolen by Jews from
St. Catharine’s (p. 132) in 1870 and sacrilegiously transfixed in their synagogue. |
