Lier

Today I took the train to the historic town of Lier, some 17 km south-east of Antwerp, for the day. My first stop was the Grote Markt, with its turreted 14th century Belfort. The Belltower is attached to the classically elegant Stadhuis or Town Hall while the Square itself is surrounded by an eclectic mix of Gothic, neo-Classical and Romanesque buildings. From there I made my way to the 1375 Prisoner's Gate, which was built as part of the original town wall and until 1930 housed prisoners. I continued on to what is a uniquely Belgian Institution, the Béguinage, which dates from the 13th century, and where widows and unmarried women established a community to live together in prayer and do pious acts without having to take vows. It was enjoyable to meander through its narrow streets past the lovely cottages. Next stop was the Zimmer Tower with its gorgeous Jubelklok or Centenary Clock, whose many dials show the phases of the moon, the zodiac the tides of Lier and other innovations. The clock was the work of Lodewijk Zimmer, who constructed it in 1931 to show his fellow townspeople how the cosmos worked and to dispel local superstition.
Lier also has a really beautiful church, the St. Gummarus, which was begun in 1378 and took another 200 years to complete, relating in a melange of Gothic, Baroque and Rococo architectural styles. Here's the young chap at a restaurant on the Grote Markt diving into a Belgian speciality, mussels cooked in vin blanc. Tomorrow the caravan moves on to Liège.










Comments

  1. Unknown12 July 2018 at 13:36

    Gorgeous architecture. But I see you're doing it tough AGAIN! Oh and did Zimmer invent the Zimmer frame😂😆

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NEIL'S FRANCE SOJOURN12 July 2018 at 22:56

      No, Joan, but I wish he did as I could certainly use one! 😁

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eschif de Creyssac

Image
As it was a warm day I decided to take a stroll along the shaded banks of Pèrigueux's river, the Isle, which itself is a tributary of the mighty Dordogne. On the outskirts of Périgueux, as I was about to descend to the river, I came across quite a remarkable construction, a medieval outpost. This imposing wooden edifice was called the "Eschif de Creyssac" and was built in 1347. Before Pèrigueux became a modern town it was known as the village of Puy-Sainte-Front, named after the usual suspect. Puy means a volcanic hill and this outpost straddled its fortifications and served as a look-out post between the village and the river. From the riverside one also has a splendid visage of the domes and cones of the Byzantine Cathédrale-Ste-Front.
Read more

Bordeaux 4

Image
My balade this morning commenced by walking across the Pont de Pierre, a canal bridge spanning the Garonne and linking Bordeaux with the area on the other side known as La Bastide. This stone bridge was built by Napoleon in 1810. A little further past the bridge I came across the stunning Église Sainte-Marie de la Bastide built in 1867 by Paul Abadie on marshland. You may notice similarities with the Église Sacré Coeur de Montmarte, which was built by the same architect. La Bastide also has a Jardin Botanique which contained some Australian flora such as willow myrtle, bottle brush and cypress pine. Back on the other side on my way home I passed The Théâtre Français, one of Bordeaux's original theatres built in classical style in the 18th century with Doric and Ionic columns.
Read more

Agen

Image
Agen on the banks of the mighty Garonne, which flows through South-West France and Northern Spain before finally debouching into the Atlantic Ocean at Bordeaux, is another charming town with old lanes and  handsome wooden and brick houses. My first stop on my morning walk was the composite Romanesque and Gothic Cathédrale Saint-Caprais with its gorgeous water-coloured frescoes on the domed ceiling above the Altar and Choeur. I next headed to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, magnificently housed in four adjacent 16th and 17th century Renaissance mansions with its huge variety of archeological exhibits dating back to Roman times such this 2nd century AD head of a consul and a wonderful Art collection of painters such as Goya and Tintoretto. The town is famous throughout the world for its Pruneaux d'Agen (dried prunes) with their exotic flavours such as Armagnac, introduced by Benedictine monks, and I made sure to sample them. Tomorrow I continue west to Marmande.
Read more