In the Shadow of Our Lady of Antwerpen

Not long before I left Holland, I made a trip to Belgium to use an important research library in the city of Antwerpen (or "Antwerp" in its anglicized form).  At one time, Antwerpen was one of the most prosperous cities in the Low Countries.  It still is the most important city in the Flemish speaking part of northern Belgium, but when Holland and Flanders split during the seventeenth century, Amsterdam and other Dutch trading cities robbed Antwerpen of its preeminent status.  The skeletal Gothic tower of Our Lady of Antwerpen dominates the historic center of the city, and a statue honors Peter Paul Rubens, one of the most renown painters of the seventeenth century, who lived in Antwerpen.

I think that Antwerpen's train station--with its bands of skylights framed in iron--is one of the most impressive in Europe.

Antwerpen is famous for its diamond business, and the train station is surrounded by jewelers.  In the past, Antwerpen's Jews were only allowed to work in certain professions, diamonds being one of them, and many of the stores here are still run by Jewish families.

Here's a display case from one of the windows.

From Amsterdam it only takes about an hour by train to get to Belgium, and Antwerpen is just a half hour further from the border.  Yet the feel of the city is dramatically different from the Netherlands.  The language is a little different, the culture is a little different, and the architecture is more than a little different.  Many of the buildings almost have a nineteenth-century French feel to them, with their domes, towers, balconies, and ornate decoration.

Unlike Holland, Belgium is also predominantly Catholic.  Part of the reason the Dutch broke away from Flanders during the seventeenth century was because they didn't want to be under the control of Catholic Spain.  Walking along the roads in Antwerpen, you frequently encounter these wonderful street shrines to the Virgin and Child.

 I had been to Antwerpen once before, but I had not visited Sint-Jacobskerk.  The entrance was just off the street in a crowded part of the city, close to the cathedral.

It was a Gothic church furnished with Flemish baroque altarpieces in black wood with dramatic white sculptures--twisted columns, swirling clouds, and angels and saints nearly falling out of the heavens as they gestured towards the worshipers below them.

Here is a view looking down the nave towards the choir screen, which separates the congregation from the high altar, hidden at the very back of the church.

Before going into the Cathedral of Our Lady of Antwerpen, I stopped in praline shop just outside the church to buy some Belgian chocolates--always a good idea.  I ate them all while standing there, listening to a woman sing and play the violin.

You are literally in the shadow of Our Lady of Antwerp as you walk inside and gaze up at the towers looming over your head.

The interior is vast with a large painted crucifix suspended from the central tower and a painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Rubens on the high altar.  Rubens isn't my favorite artist, but not surprisingly, Antwerpen has some of his nicest works.  His Elevation of the Cross and Descent from the Cross are in the two transepts of the cathedral, and they are stunning altarpieces.  Rubens really does epitomize Baroque style with his dramatic compositions played out across huge canvases in brilliant colors.  There was also a special exhibition in the north side aisles with paintings that had originally been commissioned for the cathedral but had been removed over the years to end up in museums.

Here is the crossing of the cathedral with the crucified Christ suspended majestically and the Virgin Mary's ascent into heaven painted high above in the sun-lit dome.

The intricately carved choir stalls looked particularly nice in the afternoon sunlight.

This is the wooden statue of Our Lady of Antwerpen, venerated by the people of the city as a miraculous image.  The Virgin and Child are dressed in brocade robes and wear golden crowns and hold golden scepters.  The Virgin also has a bouquet of golden roses, probably a gift from the pope.

Flemish churches seem to always have very elaborate pulpits carved from dark wood and covered with vines, animals, and figures.  They are a little too busy to look at in my opinion, but I liked all the different species of birds on this one.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in a library associated with the University of Antwerpen and dedicated to books on Flemish medieval mystics.  It wasn't quite in the shadow of the cathedral, but it wasn't a long walk away either.  After I finished, I walked around the city some more and bought a pain au chocolat and another fabulous pistachio meringue from Paul pâtisserie.  I never get sick of those pistachio meringues!  This is a picture of the Grote Markt, the main market place in Antwerpen.  It is lined with typical Flemish buildings that look Dutch, except that they seem little taller with more stone and more gilding.

 I also walked over to the square of Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk, a Jesuit church dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo.

 This is a close up of the facade with the monogram of the Holy Name of  Jesus, an emblem which the Jesuits regularly use.  If you spell the name of Jesus in Greek, the first three letters correspond to the Latin letters, "IHS."  There are three nails at the bottom of the monogram and a cross in the "H" to represent the suffering and death of the Lord.

A street runs along the back of the church, but as you walk by the section of the building where the high altar is located, a sculpture of angels worshiping the chalice and Host tells you that the sacrament is kept just on the other side of the wall.

And of course before catching my train back to Holland, I had to walk around the magnificent Cathedral of Our Lady of Antwerpen again, with the blue sky shining through the lace-like stonework in the towers like stained glass.