Cathédrale Notre-Dame (Cathedral of Our Lady)
This magnificent five-towered cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Europe's most striking examples of Romanesque architecture. Completed in the late 1100s, it's not the first place of worship to stand on this spot. There was a church here as early as A.D. 761, and it's thought there was a pagan temple before that. The 8th-century church was replaced by another in 850, which Viking raiders burned to the ground in 881. After fire again destroyed the replacement church in 1060, it was reconstructed by 1089 and became a place of refuge for a plague-stricken population. On September 14, 1090, after the dreaded disease had abated, the bishop led a great procession through the cathedral to honor Our Lady, who was credited with miraculous cures of sick pilgrims who had poured into the cathedral to pray before her statue. Since then, the Procession of Tournai has taken place every year, except 1559, when Calvinists broke into the cathedral in a destructive orgy.
The Romanesque style was, in the eyes of a 13th-century bishop, old fashioned compared to the Gothic buildings that were then appearing all over Europe. Before his money ran out, he had added stained-glass windows and created a soaring, graceful Gothic choir adjoining the low Romanesque nave. There's no sense of disharmony, but rather a compatible marriage of the two styles.
Paintings by Rubens and Jordaens adorn the interior, along with 700-year-old murals, a Renaissance pulpit, and a stained-glass "rose window." Even these wonders pale before the display in the Trésor (Treasury), which houses a vast collection of priceless religious relics and antiquities. The centerpiece is a reliquary that takes the place of honor in the Procession of Tournai, the Chasse de Notre-Dame, with a gold covering created by Nicholas of Verdun in 1205. Other treasures include 15th-century tapestries (one 22m/72 ft. long), a jewel-encrusted 10th-century Byzantine cross, and a 14th-century ivory statue of the Virgin.
This magnificent five-towered cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Europe's most striking examples of Romanesque architecture. Completed in the late 1100s, it's not the first place of worship to stand on this spot. There was a church here as early as A.D. 761, and it's thought there was a pagan temple before that. The 8th-century church was replaced by another in 850, which Viking raiders burned to the ground in 881. After fire again destroyed the replacement church in 1060, it was reconstructed by 1089 and became a place of refuge for a plague-stricken population. On September 14, 1090, after the dreaded disease had abated, the bishop led a great procession through the cathedral to honor Our Lady, who was credited with miraculous cures of sick pilgrims who had poured into the cathedral to pray before her statue. Since then, the Procession of Tournai has taken place every year, except 1559, when Calvinists broke into the cathedral in a destructive orgy.
The Romanesque style was, in the eyes of a 13th-century bishop, old fashioned compared to the Gothic buildings that were then appearing all over Europe. Before his money ran out, he had added stained-glass windows and created a soaring, graceful Gothic choir adjoining the low Romanesque nave. There's no sense of disharmony, but rather a compatible marriage of the two styles.
Paintings by Rubens and Jordaens adorn the interior, along with 700-year-old murals, a Renaissance pulpit, and a stained-glass "rose window." Even these wonders pale before the display in the Trésor (Treasury), which houses a vast collection of priceless religious relics and antiquities. The centerpiece is a reliquary that takes the place of honor in the Procession of Tournai, the Chasse de Notre-Dame, with a gold covering created by Nicholas of Verdun in 1205. Other treasures include 15th-century tapestries (one 22m/72 ft. long), a jewel-encrusted 10th-century Byzantine cross, and a 14th-century ivory statue of the Virgin.
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