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

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.

Saint Rumbold (alternatively: Rumold, Romuold, Rumoldus (Latin), Rombout (Dutch), Rombaut (French)) was an Irish or Scottish Christian missionary, although his true nationality is not known for certain.^[1][2][3] He was martyred near Mechelen by two men, whom he had denounced for their evil ways.^[4]

Saint Rumbold’s feast day is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, and Western Rite Orthodox Churches, on June 24;^[4][5] and it is celebrated in Ireland on 3 July.^[6][7] He is the patron saint of Mechelen,^[4] where St. Rumbold’s Cathedral possesses an elaborate golden shrine on its high altar, containing relics attributed to the saint. It is rumoured that his remains are buried inside the cathedral. Twenty-five paintings in the choir illustrate his life.

The monumental pulpit, sculpted in 1721-1723 by Michiel Vervoort (1667-17-37) from Antwerp.  It was first placed in the conventional church of the Nobertine nuns of Leliendael (Bruul, actual Jesuit church), there it stood at full width against a plain wall. After the French revelution it was transferred to the cathedral in 1809 and Jan Frans van Geel (1756-1830) reconstructed it around a pillar.

Above to the right the Fall of man, and to the left, the salvation are represented.  At the bottom saint Norbert (1080-1134) is flung off his horse and repents himself (1100). The grand construction in solid oak-wood is particularity well known by the representation of the Earthy Paradise with its different animals: pelican, salamander, squirrel, snakes, snail and frog.  The most beautiful small angel next to the stairs is a fine idea of the artist.*

From Sint-Romboutskathedraal MECHELEN (English Edition)*

St Rumbold’s Cathedral was built in the thirteenth century. From the outset it was larger and more impressive than all the other parish churches and later on it became ‘the church of the archbishops’. Originally there was a triple-nave cruciform church on the site of the vast cathedral. Only after a series of building campaigns did the church become our city’s star attraction.

In the religious wars in the sixteenth century the church took some hard knocks. Much of the old interior was lost to iconoclasms and plundering. Calvinist rule at the end of that century removed all references to Catholic worship. But the church had even more storms to weather. In the Second World War Mechelen was bombed and in 1972 a huge fire broke out. St Rumbold’s Cathedral withstood them all.

The inside of the cathedral is breathtaking. You can admire Anthony van Dyck’s painting ‘Christ on the Cross’, along with works by (among others) Michel Coxcie, Gaspard de Crayer and Abraham Janssens. The real showpiece, however, has to be the high altar by Lucas Faydherbe which dates from 1665.

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.