Le Chiese delle Cittá: The Churches of Brugge

This week, I was preparing for my trip to Belgium, so I was unable to post on Wednesday and I was traveling all day Thursday. However, I have a treat for you all. I decided to write a Super-Post this weekend which gave an overview of Flemish church architecture. Today (Friday) I will put up pictures of the Cathedral of Brugge. Saturday, I will put up pictures of the Church of Our Lady and Sint Jakobus. On Sunday, I will put up pictures of the Basilica of the Holy Blood. I will of course include short explanations of the architecture, but since I have talked a lot about Gothic already, I will mostly let the pictures talk for themselves.

The thing about European Gothic is that it is authentic. They really built like this in the Medieval times and they made it look pretty great. They also had to worry about heating and stuff without central heating, so in the North, they often employed tapestries to keep the cold out. The windows were large to let in the heat as well as the light. Gothic is, in essence, a practical architecture. Now, on to the pictures. Look for my Updates throughout the weekend. This is only the beginning.

The Tower was built in two part. One in the 12th C. and one in the 19th C.

 

The amount of depth in the stone tracery is astounding, interior and exterior.
This reminds me of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. There were a lot of radiating chapels added in the 14th/15th centuries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nice Baroque altar which I rightly guessed was 18th C. My studies must be paying off.

 

This picture is meant to express the vertical leading lines of the Gothic that bring your eye and mind up to God
Here's where the light comes from. And the Light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The radiation chapels are off this ambulatory which is illuminated from the many windows.

 

One of the numerous chapels. Almost all of them had Screens. It was tight.
I am a huge fan, I believe I have already said, of Gothic Altar Pieces. There were a lot of them here.
I am a huge fan, I believe I have already said, of Gothic Altar Pieces. There were a lot of them here.

 

 

 

 

 

Star Ribbing in the vault. Beautiful detail.

 

Tapestries to help with heat management.
Although the stained glass is 19th C. and not 13th C., it is still beautiful and totally in line with the Gothic style. Transformation of Light'd.

 

 

 

 

Nathaniel Gotcher

Nathaniel Gotcher

is a 20 year old architecture student at the University of Notre Dame. His architectural preference is the Gothic and also listens to anonymous 12th Century polyphony. However his listening habits are not merely medieval. He also enjoys Baroque music, 60s Rock and Christian Punk Pop. He is also an avid reader and a part-time philosopher. He is an idealist and also occasionally gives into his monarchist tendencies. He reflects on life at holyintheworld.blogspot.com and blathers on about important irrelevancies at theamericancommoner.blogspot.com

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4 thoughts on “Le Chiese delle Cittá: The Churches of Brugge”

  1. There is a Michelangelo here, but it is one of his worst ones. As the sacristan said “A Flemish merchant probably wanted a michelangelo and Michelangelo said ‘Quick, take this one.”

    That aside, Bruges is amazing.

  2. Sorry, I haven’t gotten around to fixing the links after the name change. i’ve been really busy. Also, I never put up the pictures of Our Lady and Sint Jakob…or the Basilica. Got to get on these things.

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