Belgium city of Mechelen

Visitors to St. Rumbold’s cathedral in Mechelen can see a view of the town hall. It was located in the Cloth Hall, begun in 1311 but incomplete without a belfry and in the former Brabant Grand council built by Charles V. The building was finished according to the 16th century plans but not before the 20th century.

Architecturally powerful with its wide buttresses, the tower of Mechelen cathedral was built from 1452 to 1546. It is 97 metres high, but in the original plans, also had a spire, which would have made its 167 metres high. In 1546 during the Wars of Religion, William of Orange requisitioned the material meant to complete it to built a citadel.

Mechelen cathedral’s construction began with the nave in the early 13th century and ended with the choir at the end of the 14th century. At the top of the baroque altar is a statue of St. Rumpold, who came as a missionary and was martyred in 775. A community formed around him and gave rise to Mechelen, which by 970, was a town surrounded by wooden defences.

In the cathedral tower, visitors can see a clock and a set of 47 bells dating from 1480 and completed in 1674. Immigrants from Liege following its hardship under the Dukes of Burgundy, gave rise to a metallurgical industry, which developed in Mechelen as its cloth industry collapsed. Bells and cannon were its speciality.

Mechelen treated its monarchs so well that they gladly settled there, made it the capital of the country and created civil and religious institutions. Margaret of York, Margaret of Austria and Marie of Hungary all held court there, a source of profit for luxury goods industries, Margaret of Austria’s renaissance palace in Keizerstraat , was built in 1517.

Busleyden mansion was the residence of one of the Great council members. Like Margaret of Austria’s palace , it has been restored, recreating the environment evoked by the 15th and 16th century paintings, that of a luxury and comfort living aristocracy. It currently houses a decorative Arts museum.

Attractive bourgeois architecture is still very evident in Mechelen. A group of three houses from 1669, 1550 and 1520 on Haverwerf Quay forms a good example of this type of construction with corbelled levels, displaying a popular type of sculpted decoration, in a medieval tradition that did not die out until the 17th century.

The tradition in Belgium of building gabled houses on long, narrow plots lasted well beyond the Ancient Regime. During the Second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century the Flemish culture led to the restoration of many buildings to their original condition and even the construction of new buildings in old style, giving rise to the heritage combining authenticity with imitation.
Mechelen has a good shopping district combined with lots of interesting architecture, a good transport system and can be reached from Brussels within 30 minutes.