Everything about Tournai Cathedral totally explained
Our Lady of Flanders' Cathedral of Tournai is one of the most important architectural monuments in
Belgium. This structure of local blue-gray stone occupies rising ground near the south bank of the
Scheldt, 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 nave belongs mostly to the first third of the 12th century. Prefiguring the Early Gothic style, it has a second-tier
gallery between the ground-floor
arcade and the
triforium.
Pilasters between the round-arched windows in the
clerestory help support the 18th-century
vaulting that replaced the original ceiling, which was of wood, and flat.
The transept arms, built in about the mid-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're enriched being in the round-arched and some in the pointed style.
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.
In recognition of the Tournai cathedral's cultural value,
UNESCO designated the building a
World Heritage Site in the year
2000.
Gallery
Image:DoornikLuchtfoto.jpg|Aerial view
Image:Tournai nave.jpg|Nave, facing toward choir
Image:Dehio_212_Tournay.jpg|Reconstruction showing the original Romanesque choir (front) and two never-built towers (back)
Image:Dehio 83 Tournai Floor plan.jpg|Floor plan
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