16 Comments CherryPie on May 1st 2014
It is my turn at Vision & Verb today. I share a brief overview of my recent holiday in Mechelen. If you have been following my journey you will probably know most of it already 
But non the less I invite you to join me there…
4 Comments CherryPie on May 1st 2014
Building work by the Keldermans family of architects on this imposing Mechelen monument began in 1452. Times and circumstances changed and as a result the tower was never completed. But this did not prevent the 97-metre tower becoming the symbol of Mechelen and a UNESCO world heritage site. The city’s most important documents used to be kept in this fortified tower, which was also the belfry. The bells in the tower served to tell the townspeople the time and to sound the alarm in the event of danger. The tower also made a good vantage point; from here you could see the enemy arriving from a long way off.*
The carillon bells in the tower were a delight to hear whenever we were in the vicinity of the Cathedral.
The carillon plays tunes every quarter of an hour. Unique to Mechelen is the strike between each quarter, every seven-and-a-half-minutes. That is the ‘Mechels halfke’ – ‘The Mechelen Half’. The oldest extant bells date from the seventeenth century. In 1981 the tower was restored and a new carillon fitted. Every week several carillon concerts are held and every five years the carillon school organizes the Queen Fabiola international carillon competition.*
*From Hotelmagazine 2014-2015 Welcome in Mechelen
6 Comments CherryPie on Apr 30th 2014
6 Comments CherryPie on Apr 29th 2014
Filed under Art, Faith Foundations, Holidays, Mechelen 2014
St Rumbold’s Cathedral – Christ at the Cross
This painting depicting Christ on the cross was painted by Anthony Van Dyck in 1630. It decorated the main altar of the former Friar Minors’ church before the French revolution.
6 Comments CherryPie on Apr 28th 2014
To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
Jane Austen
22 Comments CherryPie on Apr 27th 2014
Filed under Art, Faith Foundations, Holidays, Mechelen 2014
St Rumbold’s Cathedral – Stained Glass Window
This window was put in in 1860 by the Mechelen workshop of J.-Fr. Pluys.
It represents the Proclamation of the Dogma of Our Lady Mary’s Immaculate Conception. The timpan represents the creation of the earth. Next to the figure of the pope one sees the one of cardinal Sterckx. The man at the front, to the right, clad as a master of ceremonies and holding his hand at his sword-hilt is the artist himself: L.-Fr. Pluys.*
From Sint-Romboutskathedraal MECHELEN (English Edition)*
12 Comments CherryPie on Apr 26th 2014
