…of the Town Hall complex.
4 Comments CherryPie on Apr 19th 2014
16 Comments CherryPie on Apr 18th 2014
The present day Town Hall in Mechelan is situated on the Grote Markt:
It consists of two parts: the cloth hall with unfinished belfry and the Palace of the Great Council. Why wasn’t the belfry ever finished? The cloth trade went into decline in the fourteenth century and there wasn’t the money to complete the building. For two hundred years the belfry was no more than a shell, until it was eventually provided with a temporary roof in the sixteenth century. Temporary? That roof is still there.
The belfry is now a UNESCO world heritage site. On the right of the belfry you can see the oldest part of the town hall, the remains of the earlier cloth hall. On the left is the Palace of the Great Council. The Great Council? It never actually met here, because this wing was only completed in the twentieth century in accordance with the original sixteenth-century plans of the then leading architect Rombout Keldermans.
18 Comments CherryPie on Apr 17th 2014
As well as the Moon Extinguishers (see previous post) the flags flying over the centre of Mechelen also show Opsinjoorke in flight:
The bronze statue in front of the Town Hall shows Opsinjoorke in full flight. The original doll was made in 1647. It is carried in ceremonial and religious processions and thrown into the air by means of a large linen cloth. It was originally called Sotscop or Foul Bridegroom, a reference to inebriated husbands who maltreated their wives. Divorce was absolutely forbidden in those days, and so the doll was symbolically punished (thrown into the air) for the sins of these men.
The doll acquired its current name on July 4th 1775 when, during a religious procession, the doll went beyond the reach of the cloth and landed among the crowd. An onlooker from Antwerp put out his arms to ward off the doll, but was accused of trying to steal the Sotscop. After receiving a sound thrashing from the patriotic people of Mechelen, he sent a letter of protest to the Mechelen magistrate pleading his innocence. From then on Sotscop became known as Opsinjoorke, ’sinjoor’ being the nickname of the people of Antwerp!
12 Comments CherryPie on Apr 15th 2014
The people of Mechelen are sometime nicknamed Maneblussers (Moon Extinguishers):
On the night of January 27th/28th 1687 St Rumbold’s Tower was shrouded in mist. A none too sober tippler emerged from an inn on the Grote Markt. He suddenly saw that the tower was on fire and immediately raised the alarm.
The whole city was thrown into confusion, the alarm bell was sounded and the city council led by the burgomaster lost no time in organizing the fire-fighting operation. Buckets of water went from hand to hand in a chain up the tower stairway, but even before they reached the top, the moon slipped through the haze and the glow disappeared…
Little had the brave citizens realized that the reddish misty glow they were trying to extinguish was the moon!
Of course the people of Mechelen tried to keep the incident quiet, but the news soon spread abroad, earning the people of Mechelen the nickname Maneblussers (Moon Extinguishers) – a nickname they bear to this day.
12 Comments CherryPie on Apr 14th 2014
It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.
Rainer Maria Rilke
18 Comments CherryPie on Apr 13th 2014
