Click on any image for a larger version
I lived right next door to this church but never remember going in. That was fifty years ago, and this time I made sure to pay a visit. I was back in Brugge (then Bruges), Belgium, for a fiftieth anniversary class reunion at the College of Europe and I had some free time either side of the actual function. I resolved to spend this communing with my former classmates and otherwise blitzing Brugge. I came home with around five hundred photos and it will take me a while to process them and write them up. This post is my first completed post from the trip.
When I was in Brugge then, I had no idea about St. James and the Camino. I was only barely aware of my own family's connections to Dublin's James's Street, from where many an Irish Camino starts out.
This time I was more with it and even noticed the little brass scallop shells embedded in the footpaths throughout the parish.
But what really struck me on first entering the church was the sheer size and space of it and the power that this must have represented when Brugge was at the height of its own power as a maritime trading centre. Yes it used to have the sea, so to speak, right up to the town itself.
The photo above is of the main nave (of three) and is a later addition to the original thirteenth century church.
What you see here is a rood screen and it is just about half way up the church.
The rood screen was a physical and symbolic barrier, separating the chancel, the domain of the clergy, from the nave where lay people gathered to worship. It was also a means of seeing; often it was solid only to waist height and richly decorated with pictures of saints and angels. Concealment and revelation were part of the medieval Mass. When kneeling, the congregation could not see the priest, but might do so through the upper part of the screen, when he elevated the Host on Sundays. In some churches, 'squints' (holes in the screen) would ensure that everyone could see the elevation,[14] as seeing the bread made flesh was significant for the congregation. [Wikipedia]
Above the screen is a statue of the Virgin and Child and above this again this magnificent organ.What an absolutely stunning halfway house. A lot of these screens were abolished in the Counter Reformation where the separation of the people from the body of the mass was no longer seen as desirable. The combination of mystery and secrecy which was once a feature of the Roman Catholic Church is a revelation to me. I had no idea.
Above the organ, in the middle, is St. James in pilgrim mode, flanked on the left by King David, who I think used to play the Brian Boru harp, and on the right, St. Cecelia, patron of music.
A view of the Virgin and Child from the first nave, on the left.
And this is the third nave, on the right.
In the late 17th and early 18th century the church got a makeover in Baroque style and both this altar and the main altar look very similar with their twisty pillars.
This one is St. Leonard's altar. He is patron of coopers, prisoners and the mentally ill. This nave/chapel was used by the coopers guild in Brugge. I'm sure my cooper relation who worked for Guinness in St. James's Gate would have been impressed.
Both the marble statue on high (above) and this painted oak statue on the altar itself are of St. Leonard.
This fine baroque pulpit is awash with imagery.
This lady at the base of the pulpit steps represents one of the three virtues of faith, hope and charity (love). I thought for one horrible moment she was holding some poor guys goolies but am reassured to read that she represents love and that is a human heart.
Now, I was christened on the basis that I was born on the day before the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and here are the pair of them just waiting to intimidate me and eavesdrop while I reveal all to the reverend father inside. You wish.
This area is reserved for baptisms.
The variety of baptismal fonts in the world is amazing. I saw quite a variety in Brugge itself though I don't think I'll ever see the beat of that in All Saints, Raheny. About which more on another occasion.
There are actually three people commemorated/buried here.
Fery de Gros, Burgemeister of the Liberty of Bruges, died in 1547. He is the one in the top bunk and his first wife, Phillipine, is reposing, out of sight behind him. On the bottom bunk is his second wife, Françoise, who clearly lost in the draw for places.
There's lots of gilt all over the place in Brugge, indoors and out, and this is just an example from inside the church.
Come into my parlour. Don't know who this lady is but she looks trustworthy.
A Pièta, not Michaelangelo this time, but impressive nonetheless.
You won't believe this. The Martyr's handbook #101. Three ways to become a martyr.
or just the guys who pull out
your fingernails and disembowel you?
Parochial brothers who died for the fatherland in WWI - by rank!
Disclaimer: I'm not into art/painting, but if I were, I would no doubt be carrying on for many more columnn inches, if not feet, extolling the "masterpieces", between the historic and the aesthetic, dotted around the church. As it is I have enough on my plate from what I do appreciate, even though sometimes, its historic and religious connotations are not the best.
I'll leave you with this parting thought.
If the elaborate ceremonies are dragging and you had come to them straight from the local hostelry, you could pop out for relief in this bespoke urinoir. That is if you were a male. What the women did is an open question. Perhaps they were not allowed to frequent the local hostelry or were excluded from the longer ceremonial events.
Tant pis.
No comments:
Post a Comment