Tournai Cathedral

Tournai is among the oldest cities in Belgium, and its cathedral of Notre-Dame is listed by UNESCO as a building where two great architectural moments meet head on: the nave and the five massive towers over the crossing are twelfth-century Romanesque, heavy, round-arched and austere, while the choir, rebuilt a century later, is early Gothic reaching for height and light, so you walk from one world into the other in a single building. The five towers are its signature and are visible across the plain. In the same square stands the belfry, the oldest in Belgium and part of a separate World Heritage listing covering the belfries of the region. The cathedral has been under long restoration since storm damage in the 1990s, which means scaffolding, though the interior has progressively reopened.

History

Tournai has been the seat of a diocese since the late 6th century, and the present cathedral of local blue-grey stone was begun in the 12th century on older foundations: the nave belongs mostly to the first third of that century, and the transept arms, of about the mid-12th century, are flanked by square towers 83 metres high. In the 13th century Bishop Gautier de Marvis had the Romanesque choir pulled down and replaced with a much larger Gothic one, built from 1242 to 1255 and inspired by buildings such as Amiens Cathedral; the stained glass by Arnold of Nijmegen dates from 1507 and the Renaissance rood screen by Cornelis Floris from 1573. A severe tornado damaged the cathedral on 14 August 1999 and revealed structural problems that have kept it under repair and archaeological investigation ever since, and in 2000 UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Tournai Cathedral).

The main sights

• The five towers - the Romanesque cluster over the crossing, unique in the region.
• Romanesque nave into Gothic choir - the two styles meeting inside the building.
• The treasury - reliquaries and the medieval shrines of the cathedral.
• The belfry - the oldest in Belgium, climbable, on the same square.

When to go

April to October is pleasantest for walking the town; the cathedral is open year-round outside services. Restoration work has been ongoing for decades, so check what is accessible before making a special trip. The belfry climb is best on a clear day.

Good to know

The long restoration means scaffolding inside and out and sections closed off, which has been true for many years and will remain so for some time. Tournai itself is a quiet provincial city, pleasant but modest, and a day covers it. It is out on the French border, away from the main Bruges-Ghent-Brussels circuit, so it sees few international visitors.

Nearby

Lille is half an hour over the French border; Mons and the Grand-Hornu are to the east.

Key facts