Show I 1 D A 12 the bell tower of bruges across a canal prepared by the national Geo geographic graphia 8 society my W D 0 RUGES quaint old city of bel BRUGES B glum where here medievalism ling ers lins has just opened its ita annual carillon cuil llon concert season con on aerts that their admirers are fund fond of declaring bring music from the hea v ens A carillon Is a 0 group of hells bells at attuned turied to the intervals of the nuis leal lea scale and usually covering coer ln four ce cetares taves hung in a high bell tower pay day tn in and day out the m 11 me Is I 1 produced by clockwork clock work ringers hut in hinges bruges during the summer carillon eison world famous camou 8 co e ur s P play lay by hand and foot as does it a great organist bruges like many unfamiliar foreign place names may am e an exotic sound to the Atner american fean ear but it has about as common an origin and Is about abour as logically descriptive us as three rivers or smiths cross ro raids ids 11 because the town front from tile the beginning had numerous canals und structures carrying streets across them thein it was name named in flemish bridges it Is a sort of revel sed venice liere as the latter Is an all area of son soa with islands scattered in it bruges Is a 1 ind area arcu cut into islands liy by numerous canals in both cities ninny many houses rise sheer from the water and boats are aie used for traffic like venice again bruises was once the commercial and banking enter center of the world this was in the four our century the I 1 he center of coi activity had moved froin loin taly italy to flanders and bruges wits then flanders anders ri greatest market world trade came up the river zwin which then gave it a harbor liar hoi merchants from the four quarters of the world maintained bead headquarters quarters in the city and its bourse regulated the exchange rate for fill all europe ghent was a strong strom rival but until the awn finally silted up in 1400 1490 bruges held its own at the height of its power ranges had a population of and was one of the wealthiest and busiest cit cities lesin in europe now no the inhabitants number about trade ruined by silt during its busiest era bruges s boost boast ed headquarters of ants from seventeen countries F abrica rubrics were ere shipped from italy and the east bust furs from russia and bulgaria from roland poland and wool cheese and coal from the british isles fruits from granada and egypt t apt and arabian spices ond and wine were marketed there by the end of the fifteenth century the rivers find and canals silted allied up trade routes changed and the merchants forsook bruges for antwerp leavan leaving g a city of old world charm charin for travelers to enjoy canals which were once crowded with shipping now nite clogged with silt moss and lily illy pads and in some parts parta white swans fearlessly swim about bordering quays are hare bare arid and silent harty of the gabled dwellings and warehouses facing the quays quai long the meeting places of boisterous sea rovers are unoccupied in the doorways of medieval houses old women sit tor for hours in their pic life tur esque costumes making lace see they look as though they had stepped steppe d out of a canvas of jan van eyck cycle or hans mamlic famous bruges artists some of the brick facades of the medieval homes archung with large iron rings which in the days when bruges wai was famed for its fetes were used to hang ropes of flow flowers ers from dom wall to wall in the streets huge thick legged flemish draft horses draw to market clumsy two wheeled carts filled with vreen s vegetables from nearby farms and now and then one sees a dog drawn milk cart painted green rum mm tiling over the clean cobbles grand place the city square la Is the busiest place in bruges on oil saturdays when the market Is ready for business shortly after dawn city und and rural costumes run this the gamut of color and style stile with broad flowing skirts and small lace caps domI dominac nat ing although vegetables abound on the well ordered stands there are 11 also lea copper and brass vessels old clothes used furniture and soiled books belfry tower it Is notable the belfry tower one of bruges amons landmarks rises feet over tile square during the hectic struggles of the flemish people with ith the tha spaniards the french and neighboring town towns the bells in the belfry tower lower tailed called the burghers to arms amis in it a room near the top there or ar numerous 8 rods and ropes which are connected with one of the finest carillons carll caril lous lons in E europe drope it has at bells viewed through a small window in the shaft bruges rese tables a verl veritable tabla checkerboard of red gables pierced here and there by bv spires towers and pinnacles the llie narrow streets and I 1 cana canals I 1 8 vind in ever aery y direction and from this lofty per perch ch the traveler sees bruges as an inland island for it Is completely surrounded surrounds d by natural streams sti eains find and man made canals not to be cheated of a port by natures destructive forces the people of f modern bruges have built several canals to the north sen sea Th ahe largest elargest find and most direct leads eight miles to Z cc brugge meaning the seaport of bruges this port and its canal and the basin at bruges floured figured prominently in the alie world bild war var the germans developed de eloped a strong U boat nest at binges imes froin which their underwater e destroyers went out to sink m any an allied ship and to willett which they returned for repairs and outfitting outwitting out fitting when hea the war ar was over a bously strong shelter sli elter with a concrete roof six foet feet built over 01 er the water wis was left standing blanding near rit ar tile the bruges end of the sen sea canal a monument to german gennan U boat activities the hie british ho however weer successfully hindered the U boat activities from the bruges nest by their famous sortie ri the Zee zeebrugge brugge mole when an old ship filled with concrete was ns sunk across the en entrance tranee to the canal M medieval diebal architecture at altogether boget her bruges Is one of the quain quaintest test of the old flemish cities and is slid said to preserve in its architecture a more mod leal aspect than any an of its sister municipal municipalities I 1 ties prominent architectural fen fesi turps tures are the tha lunch church of notre dante dame and the cathedral of st Sauve tir both excellent ex anti amplas ies of early pointed gothic and the lip market hall with its dominant bet try in st Ba baliles BasI siles Ies chapel Is kept the tha sacred vial brought by crusading knights from jerusalem reputed to lifave been the vessel holding the water with which joseph jo epli of arimathea Arl mathea bathed the bloodstained body of christ this rell reliquary inary Is carried taj aled once each year in the he procession of the most mos precious blood the tapestry manufacturers of 0 bruges were world famous and this c ity hits has long bean noted for its woolen clotea cloths the bells of bruges that are ringing out the summer cummer concerts are typical I 1 ell I 1 of those of the other caril carillon lons of belgium and holland to attain the range of four octaves the bell producing the he lowest note must weigh several tons while the smallest weighs scarcely 20 pounds the bells are connected to a lie board or to a clockwork mechanism which causes their cl chappers clappers appers to strike producing music from the bells bella requires great skill and dexterity on the part of the bellmaster for he must use his feet for the larger bells and the muscles of both his wrist and elbow are brought into play piny in producing the effect usually given A fine carillon Is not the result of a chance of met metal at h but ut its ita making to Is as much an schley achievement ement wrought by a wise combination of excellent material and deep thought as a Strad Stra diva harlus rius lovers of carillon carll loi music compare the tones to those of a in del mcacy and to an org organ a n I 1 in n majesty so closely has the love 0 of f bell music grown into the national i life ife of the people of the low countr lel lea of europe that it has lured to ti their defir shores poets find and writers from other lands longfellow and robert louls louis steven son paid tributes to their silvery tones tonea find to victor hugos imaginative mind the spirit of the carillon of became personified as at a done er scattering magic notes on a sleep ing world as site she tripped from the heavens down a crystal staircase to people who live within the shadows of these towers the bells possess a personal as well ar ap on an sisal licorice |