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Show IMPRESSIONS OLD AND NEW Brussels, Hotel de Ville, Statue of the Manneken, St. Gudules, Godfrey de Bouillon, Museum, Palais de Justice, Its Structure andVastness. (Written for Intermountain Catholic.) Brussels, aptly designated a "second Paris," is a most interesting city from any standpoint you view it. The first settlers, a colony of fishermen, fisher-men, took possession of St. Gery, an island situated situ-ated in the little River Senne, as early as the sixth century, and from this humble beginning sprung Brussels, the now metropolis of Beligum. The city as it at present stands comprises two parts the old and new. The old part or the city proper is the home of trade and commerce, the city of the days of Duke Charles, Philip II and Margaret of Parma. The new part is the fashionable quarter, the abode of the elite of Brussels. The population of Brussels is considerable, something about 550,-000, 550,-000, taking the city proper and the suburbs. As the visitor emerges from the railway station there opens up to his gaze a fine square dotted on every side by large and comfortable hotels. In almost all of these hotels English is spoken, though French is the prevailing language. If the visitor wishes to obtain a good idea of the city, all he has to do is to board one of the numerous tram cars that ply from the square and in the short space of two hours or so he will see a great deal of the outside part of Brussels. After fortifying myself with a good lunch I strolled out in the city and directed my steps to the Hotel de ; Ville. It is a magnificent Gothic building with a facade decorated in the later Gothic style. The spire, which is 3G4 feet high, soars above the city, and there is a gilded statue of St. Michael at the top about sixteen feet high. You can obtain an excellent view of the city from the -tower and far away in the distance you see the Belgian lion monument on the field of Waterloo.-. . In.', .the variousr halls .of .the building build-ing are many fine paintings by Belgium's great artists, Janssens and Lebrun. After seeing what was. to be seen in the Grande Place, I made my way down the Rue du Chene to see the oldest citizen citi-zen of Brussels the statue of the Manneken. The latter is a bronze figure of a boy, cast by Duques-nay Duques-nay for a fountain, and, though the statue offends some goody-goody eyes, still it remains there and is highly valued by the inhabitants. The Manneken possesses as many as eight suits of clothes and on festive occations he dons one of them. A regular attendant paid by the corporation acts as his valet and I believe an old lady deeply in love with him remembered him in her will, when she was dying, to the extent of 1,000 francs. The figure was stolen in 1817 and there was as much consternation among the inhabitants of Brussels until their , Manneken was found again as there was when the false alarm that Napoleon had won Waterloo ' reached their ears. Leaving the Manneken, the visitor next reaches the fine covered arcade of St. Hubert. It is the finest I know of, if I except that in Milan. It embraces beautiful shops on either side, and every kind of ref rehments, souvenirs, books and such can be obtained here. Take care that you don't say you are an American or they will charge you a good bit extra. The American has the name of money, as American and millionaire are synonymous synony-mous terms. However,- as far as my experience goes, the American knows the value of goods and knows the value -of money, too, and there is no soft spot in him. The glory of Brussels is undoubtedly St. Gudule's. Begun to be built in 1220, it was not until the end of the fifteenth century that it was completed. It has a most imposing facade and a broad flight of steps lead up to the principal entrance. en-trance. Roughly speaking, the length of the cathedral ca-thedral is 345 feet and its breadth 155. Although every part of the interior is beautiful, still the two great objects of interest "to every visitor are the carved oak pulpit by Verbruggen and the painted glass windows. The carving on the pulpit represents repre-sents the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise, and certainly it is a wonderful wonder-ful work. This pulpit originally belonged to the Jesuit church in Louvain, but their church could not set it off to advantage and hence it was transferred trans-ferred to St. Gudule's. The painted glass -windows are masterpieces and many good- judges declare that there is not their equal in the world. These windows for the most part depict the various princes of the House of Hapsburg and the great of the middle ages Maximilian, Charles V, Frances Fran-ces and Ferdinand I, Philip II, Margaret of Savoy, Sa-voy, Joan of Castile and many more historic and olden names. No visitor . leaves Brussels without seeing this church and certainly it comes up in every paiicular to their expectations. The three most beautiful streets . in Brussels are the Rue Riyale, Rue de la Loi and the Boulevard de Regent. Re-gent. Opening outon these streets or adjacent, you have the royal palaces, the parks, theatres, the museum mu-seum and the House of Parliament. The museum contains fine galleries of paintings by the old Flemish artists and the fifteen pictures by Rubens are admired of all. The collection, all told, .numbers .num-bers about 600. Almost opposite the museum there stands a fine equestrian statue of Gpdfrey de Bouillon. Bouil-lon. The artist depicts the famous leader of the first crusade holding aloft in his hand a flag with the cross. It is very lifelike and as you gaze upon it you can well picture to yourself the fire and enthusiasm en-thusiasm with which that warrior urged on his men to fight for the Christ. The most wonderful building build-ing in Brussels is the Palace of Justice. It stands at the extermity of the Rue de la Regence on a height overlooking the city.' It took seventeen years to build and the cost of that vast pile is estimated at 50,000,000 francs (a franc contains about lOd English money). A cupola supported by pillars stands at the top adorned by statutes representing rep-resenting Justice, Power and Grace. The building contains about 250 rooms and the magnificent staircase stair-case leading into the interior is set off with statues of the Grecian and Roman orators of the olden day. I contented myself with a study of the outside and the staircase. I got lost once in a puzzle puz-zle garden at the Crystal Palace, London, and I might be there since only for the guidance of an attendant. I did not want a second experience of such a kind and I felt that such would be my lot if I entered to explore a palace of 250 rooms and twenty-seven great halls. The Porte de Hal, situated situ-ated near the Boulevard de Waterloo, is an old castle cas-tle and interesting for two reasons. It is the last remnant of the fortifications of Brussels and the prison used by the fierca Duke of Alva. The latter was the agent of Philip II of Spain and certes the Flemish people have reason to remember him on account of the many Flemish noblemen he put to death. This old castle was turned into a museum of arms and armour in 1847, and its collection of weapons and fifteenth century shirts of mails and helmets is full of curiosity, as also its Greek, Roman Ro-man and Etruscan antiquities. The Place des Martyrs, Mar-tyrs, situated by the Rue St. Michael, recalls the strength of the Belgian people for their independence indepen-dence in 1830. In the center of the place stands a handsome monument representing liberated Belgium Bel-gium and around the monument is a gallery (underground) (un-derground) divided into , compartments somewhat after the fashion of a mortuary chapel, with the names of those who died fighting the Dutch troops inscribed on bronze plates. It is curious to note that many of those patriots belonged to different natinalities other than Belgium. I hope I have given my readers some little impression of the interesting in-teresting and beautiful city of Brussels. No visitor visi-tor to Belgium should miss it and I am sure that the most hard pleased will come away both surprised sur-prised and delighted. Next week we will take a tour to the historic field of Waterloo and the Ardennes. NAPPER TANDY. Brussels, July 20, 1909. |
