St. Rumbolds Cathedral
Encyclopedia
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
in Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
, dedicated to an assumedly Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
or Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
Christian
Christianism
Christianism had various definitions over the years. It was originally defined as "the Christian religion" or "the Christian world". In recent years, Christianism has also been used as a descriptive term of Christian fundamentalists, mostly in the United States, for the ideology of the Christian...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
and martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
who had founded an abbey nearby.
His remains are rumoured to be buried inside the cathedral. State-of-the-art examination of the relics honoured as Saint Rumbold's and kept in a shrine in the retro-choir, showed a life span of about 40 years and a death date between 580 and 655, while tradition had claimed 775 AD.
Notker of Liège
Notker of Liège was a Benedictine monk, bishop and first prince-bishop of the Bishopric of Liège with a capital Liège/Lüttich, ....
's founding of the St. Rumbold's Chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
around 1000, an adjacent collegiate church was built and its parish title was handed to the chapter in 1134. Most likely on its spot, already from around the next turn of the century onwards the wellknown St. Rumbold's Church was built, consecrated in 1312, and promoted to cathedral in 1559. This edifice never belonged to the abbey.
In 1985, on his 65th birthday, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
celebrated a mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
at St. Rumbold's. Jo Haazen, then the City's carillon
Carillon
A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...
player, heard him state: "Your tower is not complete".
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
visit of Mechelen in 1985 included also the Church of Our Lady of Hanswijk
Basilica of Our Lady of Hanswijk
The Basilica of Our Lady of Hanswijk is a Basilica in Mechelen, Belgium.The crypta and the basilica itself contains several depictions of Saint Rumbold.-External links:*...
, which John Paul II granted the title of basilica in 1987.
Construction
Consecration
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...
in 1312, when a part had become usable. From 1324 onwards the flying buttress
Flying buttress
A flying buttress is a specific form of buttressing most strongly associated with Gothic church architecture. The purpose of any buttress is to resist the lateral forces pushing a wall outwards by redirecting them to the ground...
es and revised choir structure obtained characteristics that would distinct Brabant
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...
ian Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
from French Gothic architecture. After the city fire of 1342, Master Mason Jean d'Oisy
Jean d'Oisy
Jean d'Oisy was an architect for several ecclesiastical buildings in Brabantine Gothic style...
managed repairs and continued this 2nd phase that by his death in 1375 had shaped the prototype for that High Gothic style. His successors finished the vaults of the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
by 1437, and these of the choir by 1451.
During the final phase of 1452-1520, the tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
was erected, financed by pilgrims and later by its proprietor, the City. Designed to reach 600 Mechlinian feet
Keldermans family
Keldermans is a family of Flemish artists, originating from the city of Mechelen in the Duchy of Brabant. The members of the family were mostly architects working in the Brabantine Gothic style...
construed the Saint Livinus' Monster Tower (or St.-Lievensmonstertoren as it is called in Dutch) in Zierikzee
Zierikzee
Zierikzee is a small city, located on the former island of Schouwen in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Schouwen-Duiveland, and lies about 26 km southwest of Hellevoetsluis....
(in the present-day Netherlands), where dreaded leaning or sagging of the tower (now 62 metres but designed for ca. 130) could wreck the church. This concern led to fully separated edifices, a solution as applied in Mechelen. At both places, in the early 16th century the upper part of the tower became forsaken, not for technical but for financial reasons. St-Rumbold's should have been topped by a 77-metre spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
but only seven became built, hence the unusual shape. A deliberately weak connection closed the gap with the church upon finishing the construction.
The church functions as cathedral since 1559. In the 18th century, each capital
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
s' surrounding ornament of sculped cabbage leafs that had been an inspiration for numerous Brabantine Gothic churches, was replaced with a double ring of crops. In 2005, after engineers had figured out the support capacity
Bearing capacity
In geotechnical engineering, bearing capacity is the capacity of soil to support the loads applied to the ground. The bearing capacity of soil is the maximum average contact pressure between the foundation and the soil which should not produce shear failure in the soil...
of ground and tower, there was talk of accomplishing the entire spire of the original drawings.
St. Rumbold's Tower
The flat-topped silhouetteSilhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
of the cathedral's tower is easily recognizable and dominates the surroundings. For centuries it held the city documents, served as a watchtower
Watchtower
A watchtower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military, and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to provide a high, safe place from which a sentinel or guard may...
, and could sound the fire alarm.
Despite its characteristic incompleteness, this World Heritage monument
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage, see its list of sites in Europe; rather misleadingly categorized with other kinds of bell-towers under Belfries of Belgium and France
Belfries of Belgium and France
The Belfries of Belgium and France is a group of 56 historical buildings designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Site, in recognition of an architectural manifestation of emerging civic independence in historic Flanders and neighbouring regions from feudal and religious influences, leading to a...
[ref. whc.unesco.org: ID 943 016 St. Rumbolds Tower]
is 97.28 metres high and its 514 stairs are mounted by thousands of tourists every year, following the footsteps of Louis XV, Napoleon, and King Albert I
Albert I of Belgium
Albert I reigned as King of the Belgians from 1909 until 1934.-Early life:Born Albert Léopold Clément Marie Meinrad in Brussels, he was the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and his wife, Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen...
.
Of the original carillon's set of 49 bells
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
, which are still in working order, each has its own name. Some of the most notable are Salvator, which weighs 8884 kg; Jehsus, which was built in 1460; and the Liberation, which was the newest addition in 1947. Thirty-nine steps above this instrument, there is a second complete carillon on which concerts are played during the summer months. The total weight of both these carillons is over 80 tonnes and there are 98 bells in all.
Many of the region's cities have a nickname for their populace
Populace
A populace is a group of people forming the total population of a certain place. It is taken from the Latin word populus, which means "people", but also in the sense of a race, nationality, or locality. This can be compared with the Spanish word pueblo, which derives from the same Latin...
. The Mechlinians are said to have had ancestors running up their great Tower and passing on buckets of water to extinguish a blazing fire behind the perpendicular windows, where it turned out to be mere moonlight
Moonlight
Moonlight is the light that reaches Earth from the Moon. This light does not originate from the Moon, but from sunlight. The Moon does not, however, reflect sunlight like a mirror, but it reflects light from those portions of its surface which the Sun's light strikes. See diffuse reflection.In...
through sprightly clouds, hence are called Maneblussers ('Moon Extinguishers').
Church interior
The main entrance, underneath the tower, leads into the nave of the cathedral (approximately 118 meters long).Apart from small heraldic shields
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
where (as in the Knights Hall there) the earliest Thirty Knights of the Golden Fleece had convened in 1456. (Source retrieved 31 July 2011)
dating from the Thirty Knights of the Golden Fleece
Order of the Golden Fleece
The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It evolved as one of the most prestigious orders in Europe...
chapter meetings presided in the church by young Philip the Handsome
Philip I of Castile
Philip I , known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first Habsburg King of Castile...
while his Burgundian inheritance was still under guardianship of his father
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
, few original movables survive. Forty preciously decorated Gothic altars and all other furniture disappeared during the religious troubles of 1566-1585: Though the cathedral was spared in the 1566 Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
, Mechelen was sacked in the 1572 three-days Spanish Fury
Spanish Fury
A Spanish Fury was a vindictive or rampant bloody pillage of a city in the Low Countries by Spanish regular or mutinous troops that occurred in the years 1572–1579 during the Dutch Revolt....
by slaughtering troops under command of Alva
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba
Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba was a Spanish general and governor of the Spanish Netherlands , nicknamed "the Iron Duke" in the Low Countries because of his harsh and cruel rule there and his role in the execution of his political opponents and the massacre of several...
's son Fadrique
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán, 4th Duke of Alba, Grandee of Spain, , , was a commander in the Spanish army during the Eighty Years' War....
, and suffered the English Fury pillaging by rampant mercenaries in the service of the States General
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
in 1580.
The interior features a Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
high altar and choir by Lucas Faydherbe
Lucas Faydherbe
Lucas Faydherbe was a Flemish sculptor and architect.-Biography:...
(with twenty-five paintings illustrating the life of Saint Rumbold), as well as paintings by Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
, sculptures by Lucas Faydherbe
Lucas Faydherbe
Lucas Faydherbe was a Flemish sculptor and architect.-Biography:...
, Michiel Vervoort, and stained-glass
Cathedral glass
Cathedral glass is the name given commercially to monochromatic sheet glass, which is thin by comparison with slab glass, may be coloured and is textured on one side....
windows,
including one depicting —though with a white face— the Black Madonna
Black Madonna
A Black Madonna or Black Virgin is a statue or painting of the Virgin Mary in which the Virgin Mary is black. The term was especially applied to those created in Europe in the medieval period or earlier...
painting in the church.