. The spell of Flanders; an outline of the history, legends and art of Belgium's famous northern provinces, being the story of a twentieth century pilgrimage in a sixteenth century land just before the outbreak of the great war . eabouts, and no doubtlooks to-day very much as it did on the day ofthe great fight. The cathedral of Tournai is the oldest, themost vast, and decidedly the most imposingreligious edifice in Belgium. Its five greattowers dominate the entire city and are visiblefor miles across the surrounding plains. Theoldest portions of the present structure datefrom about 880, when
. The spell of Flanders; an outline of the history, legends and art of Belgium's famous northern provinces, being the story of a twentieth century pilgrimage in a sixteenth century land just before the outbreak of the great war . eabouts, and no doubtlooks to-day very much as it did on the day ofthe great fight. The cathedral of Tournai is the oldest, themost vast, and decidedly the most imposingreligious edifice in Belgium. Its five greattowers dominate the entire city and are visiblefor miles across the surrounding plains. Theoldest portions of the present structure datefrom about 880, when the inhabitants ofTournai returned after the invasion of theNorsemen. The side porches of the naves be-long to this earliest period. In 1054 a fire de-stroyed the upper part of the cathedral and itwas shortly after this that the towers werebuilt. There were originally seven of these,the one in the centre being a gigantic squarestructure rising above all the others. Thegroup as it then stood was without a rival inEurope, but the two towers to the east of thecentral one were removed with the ancientchoir and the height of the central tower re-duced. In their present form, however, thetowers compose a magnificent Tournai, the Oldest City in Belgium 257 The four outer towers, which surround the nowmuch shorter central one, are two hundred andseventy-two feet high, and, although appar-ently alike at the first glance, are not entirelyso — a circumstance that enhances rather thandetracts from the picturesqueness of the at the crossing of the nave and thetransept these towers, from without, suggestthe fantastic idea that instead of one there aretwo cathedrals, each facing the other, and withthe central tower uniting them. In reality, the edifice is large enough to maketwo cathedrals and more, the interior beingfour hundred and twenty-six feet in lengthand two hundred and twenty feet in widthacross the transept. Built at different epochs,this imposing edifice
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1915
