A QUARTER to NINE…
DAY 7
Brugge’s crown.
The top of the Belfry tower.
You can see the bells, and on our way home, they chime a happy song over the slowly shutting down city.
A bit of melancholy, we have to pack, tomorrow a very long day, we are going home.
The belfry was added to the market square around 1240, when Bruges was prospering as an important centre of the Flemish cloth industry. After a devastating fire in 1280, the tower was largely rebuilt. The city archives, however, were forever lost to the flames.
The octagonal upper stage of the belfry was added between 1483 and 1487, and capped with a wooden spire bearing an image of Saint Michael, banner in hand and dragon underfoot. The spire did not last long: a lightning strike in 1493 reduced it to ashes, and destroyed the bells as well. A wooden spire crowned the summit again for some two-and-a-half centuries, before it, too, fell victim to flames in 1741.
The spire was never replaced again, thus making the current height of the building somewhat lower than in the past; but an openwork stone parapet in Gothic style was added to the rooftop in 1822.
I wish you a day full of beauty and thank you for your visit, Magda, (*_*)
For more of my other work visit here: www.indigo2photography.com
Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
A QUARTER to NINE…
DAY 7
Brugge’s crown.
The top of the Belfry tower.
You can see the bells, and on our way home, they chime a happy song over the slowly shutting down city.
A bit of melancholy, we have to pack, tomorrow a very long day, we are going home.
The belfry was added to the market square around 1240, when Bruges was prospering as an important centre of the Flemish cloth industry. After a devastating fire in 1280, the tower was largely rebuilt. The city archives, however, were forever lost to the flames.
The octagonal upper stage of the belfry was added between 1483 and 1487, and capped with a wooden spire bearing an image of Saint Michael, banner in hand and dragon underfoot. The spire did not last long: a lightning strike in 1493 reduced it to ashes, and destroyed the bells as well. A wooden spire crowned the summit again for some two-and-a-half centuries, before it, too, fell victim to flames in 1741.
The spire was never replaced again, thus making the current height of the building somewhat lower than in the past; but an openwork stone parapet in Gothic style was added to the rooftop in 1822.
I wish you a day full of beauty and thank you for your visit, Magda, (*_*)
For more of my other work visit here: www.indigo2photography.com
Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved