St. Rumbold's Cathedral

St. Rumbold's Cathedral
Basic information
Location	Mechelen
Geographic coordinates	51°01′44″N 4°28′42″E / 51.02889°N 4.47833°E / 51.02889; 4.47833
Affiliation	Catholic
Year consecrated	1312
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Cathedral
Architectural description
Groundbreaking	1200
Completed	1520
Height (max)	97 metres (318 ft)

Black Madonna painting

St. Rumbold's Cathedral (Dutch: Sint-Romboutskathedraal) is the Belgian metropolitan archiepiscopal cathedral in Mechelen, dedicated to Saint Rumbold, Christian missionary and martyr who had founded an abbey nearby.^[1][2][3][4] His remains are rumoured to be buried inside the cathedral. State-of-the-art examination of the relics honoured as Saint Rumbold's and kept in a shrine in the retro-choir, showed a life span of about 40 years and a death date between 580 and 655, while tradition had claimed 775 AD.^{[Note 1][5][6][4][7]}

Construction

A 167 m finished tower design sketched in 1649 by Wenceslaus Hollar, with the headline: TVRRIS ELEGANTISSIMÆ S. RVMOLDI MECHLINIÆ

Construction of the church itself started shortly after 1200, and it was consecrated in 1312, when part had become usable. From 1324 onwards the flying buttresses and revised choir structure acquired characteristics that would distinguish Brabantine Gothic from French Gothic. After the city fire of 1342, the Master Mason Jean d'Oisy managed repairs and continued this second phase, which by the time of his death in 1375 formed the prototype for that High Gothic style. His successors finished the vaults of the nave by 1437, and those of the choir by 1451.^{[4][8][9][10]}

During the final phase of 1452-1520, the tower was erected, financed by pilgrims and later by its proprietor, the City. Designed to reach 600 Mechlinian feet^{[Note 2]} or about 167 metres, higher than any church tower would ever attain (Ulm Minster has measured 161 metres since the 19th century), the very heavy St. Rumbold's tower was built on what had once been wetlands, though with foundations only three metres deep its site appears to have been well-chosen. After a few years, in 1454, its chief architect Andries I Keldermans constructed the Saint Livinus' Monster Tower (or St.-Lievensmonstertoren as it is called in Dutch) in Zierikzee (in the present-day Netherlands), where leaning or sagging of the tower (now 62 metres but designed for ca. 130) could wreck the church. This concern led to fully separate edifices, a solution also applied in Mechelen. At both places, in the early 16th century the upper part of the tower was abandoned, not for technical but for financial reasons. St-Rumbold's should have been topped by a 77-metre spire but only seven metres of this were built, hence the unusual shape. A deliberately weak connection closed the gap between tower and church upon finishing the construction.^{[11][12][13][14]}

The church functions as cathedral since 1559. In the 18th century, each capitals' surrounding ornament of sculpted cabbage leaves that had been an inspiration for numerous Brabantine Gothic churches, was replaced with a double ring of crops. In 2005, after engineers had figured out the support capacity of ground and tower, there was talk of accomplishing the entire spire of the original drawings.^[15]

St. Rumbold's Tower

Unhindered view of the distant horizon (up to Antwerp and Brussels) is possible since 2009 from the Skywalk

The flat-topped silhouette of the cathedral's tower is easily recognizable and dominates the surroundings. For centuries it held the city documents, served as a watchtower, and could sound the fire alarm.^[16] Despite its characteristic incompleteness, this World Heritage monument^[17] is 97.28 metres high and its 514 steps are mounted by thousands of tourists every year, following the footsteps of Louis XV, Napoleon, King Albert I, and King Baudouin with queen Fabiola in 1981.

Of the original carillon's set of 49 bells, which are still in working order, each has its own name. Some of the most notable are Salvator, which weighs 8884 kg;^{[Note 3]} Jehsus, which was built in 1460; and the Liberation, which was the newest addition in 1947. Thirty-nine steps above this instrument, there is a second complete carillon on which concerts are played during the summer months. The total weight of both these carillons is over 80 tonnes and there are 98 bells in all.^[18]

Many of the region's cities have a nickname for their populace. The Mechlinians are said to have had ancestors running up their great Tower and passing on buckets of water to extinguish a blazing fire behind the perpendicular windows, where it turned out to be mere moonlight through sprightly clouds, hence are called Maneblussers ('Moon Extinguishers').^{[19][Note 4]}

Church interior

Black Madonna window

St. Rumbold's Cathedral towering above the Grote Markt square

The main entrance, underneath the tower, leads into the nave of the cathedral (approximately 118 meters long).

Apart from small heraldic shields^{[Note 5]} dating from the Thirty Knights of the Golden Fleece chapter meetings presided in the church by young Philip the Handsome while his Burgundian inheritance was still under guardianship of his father, few original movables survive. Forty preciously decorated Gothic altars and all other furniture disappeared during the religious troubles of 1566-1585: Though the cathedral was spared in the 1566 Iconoclasm, Mechelen was sacked in the 1572 three-days Spanish Fury by slaughtering troops under command of Alva's son Fadrique, and suffered the English Fury pillaging by rampant mercenaries in the service of the States General in 1580.

The interior features a Baroque high altar and choir by Lucas Faydherbe (with twenty-five paintings illustrating the life of Saint Rumbold), as well as paintings by Anthony van Dyck, sculptures by Lucas Faydherbe, Michiel Vervoort, and stained-glass windows,^[20] including one depicting —though with a white face— the Black Madonna painting in the church.^{[Note 6]}

Churchyard

In 2010, prior to the construction of an underground car park by Saint Rumbold's north side, 4,165 skeletons were unearthed during archeological excavations of the cemetery.^[21]

Events at the Cathedral

St. Rumbold's was the venue for the 2008 wedding of Count Rodolphe de Limburg Stirum to Archduchess Marie-Christine of Austria, daughter of Princess Marie-Astrid of Luxembourg.

Papal visit

In 1985, on his 65th birthday, Pope John Paul II celebrated a mass at St. Rumbold's. Jo Haazen, then the City's carillon player, heard him state: "Your tower is not complete".^{[15][22][Note 7]}

Notes

1. ↑ The abbey founded by St. Rumbold in the 6th, 7th or 8th century and a 9th century St. Rumbold's abbey church subordinate to the bishops of Liège are assumed to have been located in the Holm, higher grounds a little outside the later city walls of Mechelen. A 9th century St. Rumbold's Chapel in the city centre stood till 1580, was rebuilt in 1597 and demolished in 1798. After Prince-Bishop Notger's founding of the St. Rumbold's Chapter around 1000, an adjacent collegiate church was built and its parish title was handed to the chapter in 1134. Most likely on its spot, already from around the next turn of the century onwards the well known St. Rumbold's Church was built, consecrated in 1312, and promoted to cathedral in 1559. This edifice never belonged to the abbey.
2. ↑ The original designer of St. Rumbold's tower may have been Jan II Keldermans, Andries I Keldermans, or Wouter Coolman. (Source retrieved 25 July 2011). The now obsolete local foot came to 27.8 centimetres, roughly an inch shorter than the 30.48-cm long current British and American measure.
3. ↑ The 15,000-pound (6,800 kg) Salvator bell cast by Peter van den Gheyn in 1638 cracked in 1696 and had to be remade.
4. ↑ The full moon of 27 January 1687 caused all the stir about the presumed tower fire, reported as a 'happy-ending tragedy'. According to an 1808 sale's list "item 4242". Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu monsieur Gaspar-Joseph de Servais (in French). List: Hanicq, 1808 (Original from the Bavarian State Library online by Google books, 2011). Retrieved 28 July 2011. 4242. Maan - suchtigen Brand - sticht of Mechelsche beroerte. Bly-eyndend Treur-spel op St.-Rombouts Tooren den 27 january 1687, in volle maen, in-8°. met platen. V.  (in outdated Dutch)
5. ↑ The small painted shields at St. Rumbold's should not be confounded with the armour remnants in the Large Church of The Hague where (as in the Knights Hall there) the earliest Thirty Knights of the Golden Fleece had convened in 1456. (Source retrieved 31 July 2011)
6. ↑ The texts above and below the Madonna in the stained glass indicate portraying the Black Madonna painting in the cathedral; details of painting and its frame decoration however, are dissimilar.
7. ↑ The papal visit of Mechelen in 1985 included also the Church of Our Lady of Hanswijk, which John Paul II granted the title of basilica in 1987.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sint-Romboutskathedraal.

• Brussels Cathedral site
• "MECHELEN : Saint-Rumbold's Tower". Trabel: Belgium Travel Network, Belgium. Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
• "Mechelen Stad met een gezicht, mythes, een toren, z'n beiaard, z'n slechtvalken, een kathedraal (City with a face, myths, a tower, its carillon, its peregrines, a cathedral...) sitemap" (in Dutch). Christophe Netels -->. Retrieved 27 July 2011.  (Chapters with topic pages related to St. Rumbold, the Cathedral, and the Tower)

Coordinates: 51°01′44″N 4°28′42″E / 51.02889°N 4.47833°E / 51.02889; 4.47833