From, Beautiful Buildings in France & Belgium, Including many which have been destroyed during the war. Reproductions in Colour and Monochrome from rare old Prints and Drawings, by and after Prout, Boys, Coney, W. Callow, David Roberts, C. Wild and others, with descriptive notes, by C. Harrison Townsend, F.R.I.B.A.; New York: The Hubbell Publishing Co., 1916; pp. 54-57.
BERGUES : THE BELFRY
(J. Coney)
HE Belfry, or rather the Clock-tower, of the little French town of Bergues, though not comparable in size with some of its Belgian rivals, is often declared to be the finest in French Flanders. Its existence and importance emphasize afresh the fact that when the cities of the Low Countries were gradually acquiring their great wealth and civic dignity, the early architectural expression of their rights and privileges was the erection of a belfry. The right to possess a bell — that symbol of power and means of summoning the citizens for public debate or to resist a threatened assault —
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was one of the first privileges granted in all old charters.
The tower at Bergues is a brick building, mellowed by time, and dating from the middle of the XVth century. Some twenty years ago it was restored, with, perhaps, a little too much zeal, but, still beautiful, it dominates the quiet, sleepy town, where, as Lowell says, it to-day —
soars upward to the skies
Like some huge piece of Nature’s work, the growth
of centuries.
Copyright © 2007 by Elfinspell