It was hard to believe it, however, as we rumbled into the railroad station and, stepping out upon the almost deserted platform, took our first look at the place. As is usually the case in Flanders, the train deposits the visitor some distance from the centre of the town. The very first view was full of delight and promise of better things in store, however, for as we emerged from the station we found ourselves facing a pretty little park or square on the opposite side of which we could see a bit of the ancient city walls which stretched away toward the right most invitingly.
Postponing the pleasure of inspecting these renowned ramparts till a later occasion, we made our way through narrow winding streets direct to the Grande Place, pausing now and then to admire the quaint gabled houses on the rue au Beurre (Butter Street). At the Grande Place the Professor led us directly to the huge Cloth Hall, which completely fills one side of it, for here—he said—we would find the best introduction to the history and romance of the city. The concierge proved hard to find, and we wandered up-stairs and through a deserted corridor, trying several doors that proved all to be locked, before we located the familiar sign. Our fees being duly paid—fifty centimes each, which was little enough for the privilege of inspecting the finest monument of its kind in Flanders, or for that matter in all Europe—one of the doors was obligingly unlocked and we found ourselves immediately in the great Guild Hall.
CLOTH HALL, YPRES.
The Halle aux Draps, or Cloth Hall, is the largest civil edifice in Belgium, and without doubt one of the largest in the world. It is four hundred and thirty-three feet long by more than two hundred in width—or larger than Madison Square Garden. Its huge bulk, and that of the former cathedral hard by, contrast strangely with the present dimensions of the little city. Yet when they were built Ypres was the powerful rival of Bruges and Ghent, then at the apex of their glory, and one of the foremost cities in the world. The Cloth Hall was begun in 1200 and completed in 1304, or two years after the Battle of the Spurs, a victory won by the guildsmen of Ypres and Bruges against the chivalry of France. During that period the city had two hundred thousand inhabitants, its woollen weavers operated four thousand looms, and more than four hundred guilds responded to the calls to arms that sounded, at frequent intervals, from the belfry.
The greatest wonder of the edifice is the immense gallery, or hall, which occupies the side next to the Grande Place. This extends for the entire length of the building, broken only by the belfry in the centre which forms a sort of transept across it. In height it reaches clear to the roof, the huge roof beams forming its ceiling. There is a veritable forest of these, massive, sturdy, and as perfect as the day they were hewed from the fair oaks of the countryside roundabout. The concierge will not fail to tell you, if you pause to admire this majestic timber-work of six hundred years ago, that from that day to this no spider has ever spun its web there—nor is any spider ever seen. Like the story of the snakes in Ireland, it would be a big pity to spoil this by finding one and pointing it out—one must needs be a good runner to do it, and be very sure which road leads to the railway station, for it might go hard with him—but we could not see any the day we were there. In fact, the legend has been repeated by many writers since the sixteenth century and is now such a matter of local pride that no doubt the concierge who permitted one to get in and set up housekeeping in this spiderless Eden—for it certainly must look like the Promised Land to a spider—would not only lose his or her job, but be severely punished by the indignant city fathers into the bargain.
Looking at the Cloth Hall from across the Grande Place it has the aspect of being a low building, but within this gallery one gains precisely an opposite impression—of unusual loftiness. Just how high the vast room is can best be estimated by noting the wooden façade of an ancient house that has been taken down and erected against one wall in its entirety. With its three stories and high peaked top this structure appears to be literally lost, looking like an undersized pea in an extra big pod. The great inner walls of the main gallery, facing the windows that look out upon the Grande Place, have been decorated by modern frescoes of great historical and artistic interest painted by two artists of widely different methods and ideals. The portion into which one first enters, extending to the break formed by the tower, was decorated by Ferdinand Pauwels, Director of the Royal Academy of Dresden. Both the art critics, and those who make no pretence to superior knowledge in such matters, agree that this work has been magnificently done. The vastness of the wall spaces made it possible to paint the pictures on a scale of size and with a wealth of detail surpassing the fine frescoes of the Hotel de Ville at Bruges and the general effect upon the beholder is impressive in the extreme. The pictures represent notable events in the town’s history down to the fourteenth century, and were begun in 1872 and completed in 1881. The subjects selected by the artist are as follows:
- 1.—Visit of Count Philip of Alsace to the Hospital of Our Lady in 1187.
- 2.—Count Ferdinand of Portugal orders the Magistrates to fortify the town in 1214.
- 3.—Countess Jeanne of Constantinople setting prisoners free on Good Friday, 1206.
- 4.—5.—The Magistrates give the Countess Margaret the ransom of her son William, who was made prisoner during the 7th Crusade.
- 6.—Building the West wing of the Guild Hall in the time of Guy of Dampierre, 1285.
- 7.—8.—Return of the armed forces of Ypres in 1302 after the Battle of the Spurs.
- 9.—The Plague, known as la Morte d’Ypres, in 1347.
- 10.—11.—Banquet offered in this very hall to Mahaut, Countess of Flanders, and Matthew, Duke of Lorraine on their marriage in 1314.
- 12.—An episode of the siege of Ypres by the English and the men of Ghent in 1383.
As will be noted, the pictures are not arranged in exact chronological order, but, taken together, they form a wonderful pictorial summary of the city’s history—down to the Fall of 1914, which merits a separate gallery by itself. To us the most impressive of the series was the vast picture in two sections showing the triumphant return from the Battle of Courtrai and the tragic representation of the Black Death, which swept through all the densely populated Flemish towns; but was more destructive at Ypres than elsewhere. The visitation here represented was by no means the only one in the city’s history, and for centuries la morte d’Ypres was a name of terror throughout the countryside.
In the section of the Great Hall beyond the belfry the mural paintings are the work of Louis Delbeke, a painter of Ypres. His pictures were the subject of violent criticism when they were first exhibited, and are entirely unlike those in the other portion of the chamber. The artist endeavoured to give his work an archaic appearance, in keeping with the antiquity of its surroundings, and it was his intention to symbolise the various manifestations of the public life of the city—Civic Freedom, Commerce, Industry, Charities, Literature and so on. The work was interrupted by his death and has never been completed.