Cathedral of Our Lady, Tournai
UNESCO-listed cathedral with five Romanesque towers and an early Gothic choir, open daily.
Tournai Cathedral is one of the largest churches in Belgium and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Its nave and transept were built in the twelfth century in a massive Romanesque manner, using local blue-grey Tournai limestone, while the choir was rebuilt from 1243 in an early Gothic style inspired by northern French cathedrals. The junction between the two campaigns is unusually abrupt, and the church is often cited as a textbook illustration of the shift from Romanesque to Gothic building.
Five towers rise over the crossing, the tallest about 83 metres, and form the emblem of the city. Inside are a Renaissance rood screen of 1572 by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt, wall paintings, and a treasury holding the thirteenth-century Shrine of Our Lady by Nicolas of Verdun and the Shrine of Saint Eleutherius. The building suffered bomb damage in 1940 and a tornado in 1999, and has been under a long programme of restoration since.
Highlights
- Five Romanesque towers over the crossing, the tallest about 83 metres
- Romanesque nave meeting a thirteenth-century Gothic choir
- Renaissance rood screen of 1572 by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt
- Treasury with the Shrine of Our Lady by Nicolas of Verdun
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