Tournai (Doornik): the sights!

Not so long ago, I read an article in an international magazine about Belgium, which - much to my surprise - recommended a visit to Tournai. It didn't mention Ghent, which was even more suprising, but it did mention - what I knew as - the second oldest city of my country (after Tongeren).

I wondered why I had never been to Tournai, which we call Doornik in Flemish. I did learn about its importance during Roman times in elementary school. But we never went on an excursion there, even though it's only 30 km away from where I grew up. I knew it had a cathedral and a fine arts museum. But it never crossed my mind to actually go and visit them. The Flemish media never report about what's going on there, nor does the international press. A forgotten city so to speak. But in my current interest of anything Wallonian I decided to give it try.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, give it try as well! It's really worth it. I really liked the town a lot. I wouldn't go back there any time soon, but I'm glad I did go today and I'm actually thinking of taking a group up there if they show an interest in seeing something of the French speaking part of Belgium.

The most interesting thing of the city is its history. This was an important town during the Roman occupation of the area (which was named Tornacum at the time), but little remains of that period. It was the capital of the Frankish empire under the kings Childeric and Clovis! It's the birthplace of Roger van der Weyden, one of the most famous Flemish painters. It belonged to England once and even had a seat in the Parliament of England. The bishop of Tournai was the catholic leader of Flanders for more than a 1000 years! It has the oldest Belfry and medieval bridge of the country. And so on. And so on.

I really liked walking around the town. I visited two museums, one of which was the Museum of Fine Arts. It's located in an extraordinary building, designed by art nouveau master Victor Horta. There's a huge circle entrance hall and around that hall you have the exhibition rooms, which contain great works from Monet & Manet a.o.; some modern nude photography art and a huge painting which caught my interest called 'Abdication of Charles-Quint' by local painter Louis Gallait. I also visited the Museum of Tapestry and Textile Art, which had a temporary exhibit about Flemish wall carpets that were sent to Italy many centuries ago. It also has two floors of contemporary textile art, which was quite fascinating. There were some people restoring textile works, such as tapestries. I sometimes go to the tapestry restoration house in Oudenaarde with my passengers, but this would be a good alternative. There are a lot museums in the city, which I didn't visit this time. Apparently the Folklore Museum is great and so are the Museum of Weapons and Military History & Museum of History and Decorative Art. There was even a private museum which caught my attention that dealt with puppets (on a string).

The city itself is split in two by the Scheldt river. One side is residential and has shops and the train station. The other side is more historic and has all the museums and the main tourist attractions. Along the river you have the old fish market, which now houses a lot of bars. In front of it there's this elevated bridge which is pretty useless since a few meters further you have a much easier bridge to cross the river. It's not remarkable at all, but it has its charm and you can take pictures on it. So why get rid of it? The Main Square is great. Not as spectacular as in other towns, but very nice anyways. It has this cool ground level fountain which is a big hit with children, since the water seems to erupt from the ground at irregular intervals and you can get wet if you stay too long on the wrong spot. I also liked the cloth hall a lot, which looks more like an important renaissance city hall. The belfry on the other hand may be the oldest in the country, but I wasn't too impressed by it. I was more impressed by the little statues that are spread all over the city and represent some trades. All over the city you also have plaques in four different languages (F, D, G, E) that give some more details about certain aspects of the city. There are several medieval towers around the city and the medieval three-arched bridge over the river Scheldt was very pictoresque. I wanted to climb on top of it (there was a spiral staircase), but the top of the bridge looked like it was inhabited by the bums of the city. There must have been an old restaurant on top of the bridge which apparently closed many months ago and was now occupied by homeless. I may of course have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fact was that I rushed down the spiral staircase after some local bums gave me an evil look.

I'm sure there's a lot of other sights that I didn't see during my vist, but you can definitly spend a whole afternoon there.

By coincidence I drove past a most remarkable church outside of the city, which had a really cool attraction. The church is called Sacre Coeur and is located on the way to Ronse/Renaix. It's very small and there's nothing else to see in the neighbourhood (apart from a typical french fries stand which seemed to be very popular according to the huge line of clients outside), but you have to see it. There's a huge statue of Jesus Christ on top of the church tower. This may not sound that extraordinary, but guys (and girls): it's on TOP of the tower. Where you normally have, just a roof or a rooster or a cross or any kind of windvane. No, here it's a statue! Why go to Rio if we have such a cool Jesus statue over here?