A Cathedral and a Carnival in 's-Hertogenbosch

I took the train yesterday to the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, capital of the North Brabant province in the  southern portion of the Netherlands.  "Bosch" means "woods" in Dutch, and the city used to be surrounded by a forest used by the local dukes for hunting.  I came primarily to see the Gothic cathedral of Sint-Jan, which still functions as the center for the Catholic diocese of Brabant.

It was a cold day, but fortunately there was no rain.  In a quiet green park there was a stretch of grass covered in yellow, purple, and white crocus.

 When I stepped off the train in 's-Hertogenbosch, I was surprised to see two people dressed up in costumes with painted faces waiting to get on the train.  "Hooligans escaped from school," I thought.  "Avoid eye contact."  I walked out of the train station and was even more surprised to see a couple more people in costumes.  "Pretend you don't notice them," I told myself.  I started to observe that in addition to costumes here and there, nearly everyone was wearing red, white, and yellow scarves, and some people had badges, silk flowers, and ribbons pinned to their clothing and hats.

The whole city was celebrating a festival--the buildings were draped in red, yellow, and white flags, and there were marching bands blaring out music and a parade with elementary school kids carrying banners.  I looked through my guidebook to try to figure out what was going on, and then I found it on the "calendar of events" page.  It was carnival in 's-Hertogenbosch!

There was a busy market in front of the city hall with stands selling vegetables, fruit, meat, fish (including those herrings that some Dutch people like to eat raw), and even Turkish breads.  I bought a warm stroopwafel and listened to the music and the noise as I walked around.

The flower stand.

The cheese stand.

A statue of the late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century painter Hieronymus Bosch stood in the center of the market.  This is his home town.

Then I made my way to the cathedral.  Begun in the late fourteenth century and finished in the early sixteenth century, Sint-Jan's is a massive church with a large nave flanked by double side aisles.  An ambulatory circles the high altar in the apse with multiple side chapels, the whole building lit by both white light coming from the windows and also by the glowing colors of nineteenth-century stained glass.

Fifteenth-century architecture is Gothic at its most ornate, and every flying buttress, wall buttress, and tower on the cathedral was intricately carved, with statues of the saints peering out from their niches.

It is overwhelming to try to take in the profusion of detail.

Gargoyles prowl around corners and angels balance at the peaks of the gables.

If you were to look down on Sint-Jan's Cathedral from an airplane, you would notice it, like many medieval churches, is built in the shape of a cross.  The faithful imagine Christ's crucified body mystically lying along the floor plan of their sanctuary.  You enter at the "base" of the cross near Christ's feet, and the sections of the church where Christ's arms would be--along the "crossbeam" of the cross--are called the transepts.  The high altar is positioned where Christ's head would be, at the top of the cross, in the apse.  Because the northern transept gets less light during the day, it is often associated with the Old Testament, the "darker" half of the Bible.  Usually, devotion to the Virgin Mary is centered in this transept because medieval theology understood her to be the culmination of the Old Testament.  This is a picture of the northern transept portal of Sint-Jan's, with sculpture focusing on the Lord's mother.

In fact, the northern side of the cathedral houses a special chapel dedicated to Our Lady of 's-Hertogenbosch, a fourteenth-century statue of the Virgin and Child believed to be miraculous.  It has been venerated by the people of Brabant for centuries, and today it stands above hundreds of fresh roses, tulips, and lilies with glass cases on the walls filled with rosaries and silver votive offerings shaped like hearts and hands and offered to Our Lady of 's-Hertogenbosch in gratitude for miracles.  The statue is dressed in a heavy red robe with gold brocade, and the Virgin and Child both wear golden crowns.  Racks of candles flicker in the dim interior.  It was strange to see people coming in from the Carnival festivities outside with pink hair, painted faces, and costumes to light a candle.  Photography was not allowed in the chapel, but this picture is from a processional standard and shows what Our Lady of 's-Hertogenbosch looks like.

This is a view looking up from the southern transept portal, associated with the New Testament because of the extra sunlight that comes from the south.  Not surprisingly, this portion of the cathedral is dedicated to the church's patron, St. John, Christ's beloved apostle.

This is a view of the elaborate Gothic carving decorating the chapels in the east, not far from the high altar.

Inside the cathedral I had to wear gloves because it was so cold--much colder than outside.  Had I not been inside a church, I would have worn my snow hat, too!  There were statues of saints on every pillar.  I tried to follow along and look at each saint, but you start to loose your balance from turning around so much!

Tower over the crossing.

Midday mass was being celebrated while I walked around the side aisles, and it was strange to hear the commotion of trumpets and yelling people from the streets mixed with the chanting of the priest at the altar.

If they had played this massive organ during the mass it would have completely drowned out the parade outside!

The side chapels behind the high altar are good examples of nineteenth-century Neo-Gothic style.  This is an altarpiece with the Sacred Heart of Jesus flanked by the Crucifixion and the Annunciation.

But this is no nineteenth-century Neo-Gothic altarpiece (nice as they often are)!  This is an original--carved, painted, and gilded in the fifteenth century, and it was the most spectacular piece of art in the cathedral.  The three main divisions depict Christ walking through the jeering crowds to Calvary, his Crucifixion, and the lamenting of his disciples as his dead body is reverently laid in his mother's lap.  The ground plane in the scenes has been severely tilted so that you can see whole crowds of figures--Mary and John at the base, soldiers, mourners, figures on horseback, angels that appear to hover, and finally Christ crucified at the peak of the composition.  It was amazing.

The picture doesn't begin to do it justice, but this is a detail of the lamentation over Christ's dead body.