Saint Rumbold's Cathedral

Stand in the Grote Markt for a moment and tilt your head back. The tower rises straight from the square, a wall of pale grey stone with long, narrow openings. Pigeons move along its ledges. On a quiet afternoon you may hear bells drift down from high above. The melody is too complex for a simple clock chime. Someone up there is playing it by hand.

This is Saint Rumbold's Cathedral, the great church of Mechelen. For many centuries its tower has been the first thing travellers see across the flat Flemish countryside. Mechelen is a compact city, set between Brussels and Antwerp. But this one building gives it a presence on the horizon that much larger cities would envy. Before we go inside, let's look at the man whose name it carries.

Saint Rumbold is a figure where history and legend overlap. According to tradition, he was a missionary bishop from Ireland or Scotland. He came to this region to preach, probably in the eighth century. Legend has it that he was killed by two men he had criticised, and that his body was thrown into the river. His relics became the spiritual heart of the town. Pilgrims came to visit them, and the money they brought helped pay for this church.

Construction of the main church began in the thirteenth century and continued for generations. The style is Brabantine Gothic. That is a local form of Gothic architecture from the old Duchy of Brabant, the region around Brussels, Leuven and Mechelen. It is more restrained than French Gothic. Look for tall, clean surfaces, slender columns, and large windows, rather than a forest of carved figures. The building feels calm and vertical, almost severe.

Now look back up at the tower. Work on it began in the middle of the fifteenth century. The builders had a bold plan. They wanted a stone spire on top, which would have made this one of the tallest structures in Christian Europe. Then, in the early sixteenth century, the work stopped. Money ran out, and the political times changed. The spire was never built. Here is the first surprise... the famous tower you see is, in a sense, unfinished.

Even without its spire, the tower reaches close to one hundred metres. Its flat top gives it a strong, square outline that you can recognise from far away. In 1999, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list, as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France. A belfry is a bell tower that also served the town as a lookout and a symbol of civic pride. Here, church and city shared the same stone.

Mechelen people have a nickname, and it comes from this tower. They are called the Maneblussers, which means moon extinguishers. Locals say that one foggy night, a man saw a red glow behind the tower windows. He thought the church was on fire and raised the alarm. Citizens rushed out with buckets. Then the clouds moved, and they saw the truth. It was only the moon, shining through the openings. Mechelen laughs about this story today.

Inside the tower hang bells, and among them are two carillons. A carillon is a large musical instrument made of many tuned bells. A player sits at a wooden keyboard and strikes the keys with fists and feet. This city has a special place in carillon history. Mechelen is home to the Royal Carillon School, founded in the twentieth century. Students come from many countries to learn here. When you hear live bell music in the square, you may be listening to a master, or to a student.

If you have strong legs, you can climb the tower. The route has more than five hundred steps, on narrow stone stairs that turn and turn. On the way, you pass rooms where the bell ringers once lived and worked. You can see the huge bells and the old wooden frames that hold them. At the top, a viewing platform opens onto the whole of Flanders. On a clear day, the land looks almost endless, with church towers in every direction.

Now step inside the nave, the long central hall of the church. The air is cooler, and sounds become softer. Your eyes move upwards along the columns. Against many of these columns stand large statues of the apostles, the twelve followers of Christ. They were added in later centuries, in the Baroque style. Baroque art is the dramatic, emotional style of the seventeenth century. It sits here inside a quieter Gothic frame, and the contrast is part of the experience.

Look for the wooden pulpit, the raised platform where the preacher spoke. It is a large Baroque work, full of carved figures, branches and animals. It feels almost like a small forest made of oak. Spend a minute here. The closer you look, the more small details you find. Children often enjoy searching the carvings for creatures hidden among the leaves.

Here is a second surprise for many visitors. In a side chapel of the cathedral hangs a Crucifixion by Anthony van Dyck. He was one of the greatest Flemish painters of the seventeenth century, and a student of Rubens. The painting shows the drama of Christ on the cross, with strong light and deep shadow. Elsewhere in the church, look for a series of old painted panels that tell the life of Saint Rumbold. They are like a picture book of the legend.

In 1559, Mechelen became the seat of an archbishop. That made this church the leading Catholic church in the Low Countries. Today the archdiocese is called Mechelen-Brussels, and the cathedral still holds that role. Many visitors are surprised to learn this. They expect the main church of Belgium to be in Brussels. In fact, the old religious centre of the country stands here, in a smaller and quieter town.

When you walk back out into the Grote Markt, pause once more. Look at the tower above the rooftops, the cafes, the people crossing the square. Listen for the bells. If you hear music, stand still for a minute and let it finish. Then walk a few streets away and look back. The tower will still be there above you... unfinished, patient, and still watching over Mechelen.