EUROPE TO-DAY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12470, 3 October 1938, Page 4

EUROPE TO-DAY

GHENT AND BRUGES Ghent ■ to-day treasures up the memories of the past. The city is proud of many noble buildings, foremost among them the great Cathedral of St. Bavou. The exterior is not striking, but inside the church is richly decorated, and shelters the famous picture, The Adoration of the Lamb by the brothers Van Eyck avlio may be said to have made Ghent the centre of Flemish art. Just outside the cathedral we may see the brothers sitting side by side, above steps, figures crowding round— Ghent’s tribute to two famous men.,

Looking down on all the bustle of the modern city are the grim walls, of a battlemented stronghold of the counts of Flanders, traditionally founded over a thousand years ago; and in the celebrated Friday Market (with its trees) stands Jacques Van Artevelde delivering a speech in favour of an alliance-wPAf'iSngland. . It is true, thar’the burghers of Ghent were once famous for their turbulence, but there is no sign of this along the banks of the Lys when, 1 their old guild houses stand looking at their peaceful reflections.

As for the civic splendour of Bruges, we must see it to believe it , —the city of tflree great towers.. There is the famous Belfry of Bruge» in the Grand Place, its eight pinnacles 352 feet above the busy; square. There is the curious and not altogether pleasing tower of St. Saviour's—now a cathedral; and there is the tower of the town hall. All dominate the city. We think of Bruges as drenched in time. It is old; old and venerable. Now only a shadow of itself, its population is less than in its youth when it was full of bustle and stir. But it has grown old graciously.