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. 136-139.
MALINES : CATHEDRAL FROM THE GRAND’ PLACE
(S. Prout)
HE choir of the Cathedral of St. Rimbaut at Malines has been called a crowning example of the architecture of the latter half of the XIVth century. The nave, however, was rebuilt, after a fire, about a century later, and the huge, unfinished tower which forms the background of Prout’s sketch was not carried even to its present height till the XVIth century. The people of Malines felt what Coleridge calls “that instinctive taste which teaches men to build their churches with spire-steeples, to point, as with silent finger, to the sky and stars,” and it was their proud hope
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that this should exceed and overtop all other spires. It, however, was never completed, and of the intended height of very nearly 500 feet but a little more than 300 were ever completed.
The interior of the church is imposing, and worthy of being the seat of the one Archbishop Belgium possess, but it has been much marred by modern work of restoration, the stained glass being especially open to criticism.
The Germans subjected the defenceless town to a merciless bombardment, and on September 27, 1914, directed their fire particularly against the Cathedral, adding to their act the gratuitous cruelty of selecting the hour of worship, when the Cathedral was crowded, for making it the target of their guns.
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