Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/625

Rh 441. Section of Central Portion of Church at Tournay, looking South. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.

442. West front of Notre Dame de Maestricht. (From Schaye's "Belgium.")

number in Belgium belonging to the 11th century, such as Bartholomew at Liège; St. Servin's, Maestricht; the church at Ruremonde (almost an exact counterpart of the Apostles' Church at Cologne), and others of more or less importance scattered over the country. They almost all possess the peculiarity of having no entrance in their west fronts, but have instead a massive screen or frontispiece surmounted by two or three towers. This was the arrangement of the old church of St. Jacques at Liege. The church of Notre Dame de Maestricht presents a somewhat exaggerated example of this description of front (Woodcut No. 442). It is difficult to explain the "origin of this feature, nor have we any reason to regret its abandonment. There can be no doubt that the proper place for the principal entrance to a church is the end opposite the altar, where this screen prevented its being placed.

Among the smaller antiquities of this age, none are perhaps more interesting than the little chapel of St. Sang, at Bruges, built by Thierry of Alsace, on his return from the Holy Land, 1150; it is a small double chapel, of a form very common in Germany,