TOURNAI (Page 2 of 3)
So, I tried walking north from the cathedral, but after several blocks that did not allow following a straight line, I ended up at the river looking at what was a Medieval, fortified bridge:
From the river, another sizable church was also visible:
Which turned out to be the St, Jacques cathedral, another beautiful piece of work, but not what I was being drawn to:
From this cathedral to the area I really felt drawn to there were several building facades that stopped me in my tracks long anough to picture them:
But when I came to this unstable, crumbling edifice called the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, with a sign showing it dated from well before Marguerite's time, I felt her presence again, almost like I did in Valenciennes, for just a moment.
Couldn't go in, the building is in danger of partial collapse as you can see from the cracks at the rear:
Why was I so sure that Marguerite had been here? Because this church was next to the Beguinage
where she would surely have been hosted! I am sure this gate to the Beguinage has been built up since her time,
but the Beguinage then was, no doubt, here.
Through the gate, looking back, the row of houses on the right is part of the Beguinage housing complex of four streets making one square block.
The street at the opposite side of the rectangular block was the nicest of the four:
The longer sides of the rectangular block were not as well decorated, but still part of the Beguinage layout.
At one corner of the Beguinage, a patch of flowers had been planted:
Having seen the Beguinage, and a church where Marguerite, no doubt, visited, my primary purpose in visitng Tournai was done. But the best was yet to come!
Go back to the first Tournai page