Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/278

240 struggle of centuries the people succumbed under the growing power of Feudalism and of Royalty, still this was for a time only, and the battle has been recommenced and won all over civilized Europe within the last two hundred years.

The cathedral of Bruges is a lofty Gothic brick structure of the 13th and 14th centuries. The interior is remarkable for its fine proportions and contains many fine paintings by Jacob Van Oost and other Flemish masters. But more interesting than the cathedral is the Notre Dame of Bruges. It was built in the 12th to 15th century, and its magnificent and lofty tower 390 feet high was restored so late as 1858. As in the cathedral, there are many fine paintings here and a group in marble of the Virgin and Christ, ascribed to the chisel of Michael Angelo. But the most interesting objects in Notre Dame are the tombs of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and his daughter Mary, wife of Maximilian of Austria.

Close to the Notre Dame is the Hospital of St. John where sisters of charity have nursed and attended on the sick for upwards of five centuries! In this hospital is a collection of the finest paintings of Memling, one of the earliest of the Flemish masters. Many of his pictures seem to shew how the commerce of the 13th to 15th century directly inspired the Flemish art of the 15th century, and how the mind of the painter drew its first impressions and ideas from the varied costumes,