Tournai Cathedral

Notre-Dame Cathedral of Tournai is one of the most important architectural monuments in Belgium. The cathedral occupies rising ground near the south bank of the Escaut, which divides the city of Tournai into two roughly equal parts. Begun in the 12th century on even older foundations, the building combines the work of three design periods with striking effect, the heavy and severe character of the Romanesque nave contrasting remarkably with the Transitional work of the transept and the fully developed Gothic of the choir. The transept is the most distinctive part of the building, with its cluster of five bell towers and apsidal (semicircular) ends. The Scheldt (Dutch: Schelde, French Escaut) is a 350 km[1] long river that finds its origin in the north of France, enters Belgium and near Antwerp flows west into the Netherlands towards the North Sea. ... The cathedral of Notre Dame de Tournai Tournai (in Dutch: Doornik) is located 85 kilometers southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt in the Belgian province of Hainaut. ... Interior of the Saint-Saturnin church St-Sernin basilica, Toulouse, 1080 – 1120: elevation of the east end Romanesque sculpture, cloister of St. ... Links to full descriptions of the elements of a Gothic floorplan are also found at the entry Cathedral diagram. ... Full descriptions of the elements of a Gothic floorplan are found at the entry Cathedral diagram. ... See also Gothic art. ... This article is about an architectural feature; for the astronomical term see apsis. ...

Southern transept and towers

Nave, facing toward choir

West portal

The nave dates largely from the first third of the 12th century. Its sides are divided into four stories: three tiers of arcades, surmounted by a clerestory. The piers on the ground floor, supporting the arches which open into the side aisles, are each composed of a bundle of eight columns around a cruciform core; those of the second-tier gallery are of similiar size but simpler in construction. The smaller third tier consists of an uninterrupted series of low semicircular arches springing from semicircular shafts. The clerestory windows are large, round-headed ones, nine on either side, and between each is a pilaster carrying the transverse arches of the 18th-century vaulting. Until the substitution of this roof for the original one, which was of wood, and flat, these pilasters did not exist. Arcade can mean several things: Arcade (architecture) - A passage or walkway, often including retailers. ... Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ... In a modern church an aisle is a row down the middle of the church with a set of pews on each side. ...

The transept arms, dating from about the middle of the 12th century, have apsidal ends, a feature borrowed in all probability from certain Rhenish churches, and which would appear to have made its influence felt in the northeast of France, as at Noyon and Soissons. The square towers that flank the transept arms reach a height of 83 meters. They vary in detail, some of the arcade work with which they are enriched being in the round-arched and some in the pointed style. The Rhineland (Rheinland in German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany, although some consider the lands to the east of the river culturally distinct, jovially referring to them as Schäl Sick; the bad or wrong side... Noyon is a small but historic French city in the Oise département, Picardie, on the Oise Canal, approximately 60 miles north of Paris. ... Soissons is a town and commune in the Aisne département, Picardie, France, located on the Aisne River, about 60 miles northeast of Paris. ...

Bishop Gautier de Marvis (1219-1252) had the original Romanesque choir demolished in the 13th Century, in order to replace it with a Gothic choir of much grander dimensions, inspired by the likes of Amiens Cathedral. The construction of the new choir began in 1242, and ended in 1255. The rest of the cathedral was supposed to be rebuilt in the same style as the choir, but this was never attempted, the only later additions being the western porch, and a large Gothic chapel which was built alongside one of the side aisles, whose original walls and windows disappeared in the process. The cathedral in Amiens Close-up of a stained glass window The Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame dAmiens), or just Amiens Cathedral, is the tallest complete cathedral in France with the greatest interior volume, estimated at 200,000 m³. The vaults of the...

In recognition of the Tournai cathedral's cultural value, UNESCO designated the building a World Heritage Site in the year 2000. UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain range, lake, desert, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated, and confirmed, for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. ...

Aerial view

Reconstruction showing the original Romanesque choir and two towers that were never built

Floor plan

External links

• Tournai: Our Lady's Cathedral - from Belgium Travel Network
• Tournai Cathedral (pdf) - UNESCO site, contains detailed description and history
• Cathedral Notre-Dame - from official site of the city of Tournai
• Cathedral site - from the Diocese of Tournai site (in French)

World Heritage Sites in Belgium

Belfries of Belgium and France (w/ France) | Brugge | Flemish Béguinages | Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre and their Environs, La Louvière and Le Roeulx (Hainault) | Grand-Place, Brussels | Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta (Brussels) | Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (Mons) | Notre-Dame Cathedral, Tournai | Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex Image File history File links Flag_of_Belgium. ... Elabana Falls is in Lamington National Park, part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia. ... A tower containing one or more bells, typically part of a church is a bell tower; attached to a city hall or other civil building, it is usually named belfry; the occasional free standing one may be referred to by its Italian name, campanile. ... Sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North, Bruges has many waterways that run through the city. ... one of the béguinages of Ghent A Béguinage is a collection of small buidlings used by Beguines, which were several lay sisterhoods of the Roman Catholic Church, founded in the 13th century in the Low Countries, of religious women who sought to serve god without retiring from the... A view of Lange (The Angel) on the Grand Place The Grand Place (French: Grand-Place or Grand Place, Dutch: Grote Markt) is the central market square of Brussels. ... Maison and Atelier Horta, designed in 1898, now houses the Horta Museum, dedicated to his work. ... The Plantin Press at Antwerp was one of the focal centers of the fine printed book in the 16th century. ...