Cathedral of Saint-Bavo



 

The main church of Ghent, which also houses three of the city's art treasures, is the Sint-Baafskathedraal or the Cathedral of Saint-Bavo. We didn't have much time but before he excused us for lunch, Hilbren thought it worth leading us inside for a few minutes.

 

At the front of the sanctuary is the main altar displaying Bavo, the beloved local saint on his way to heaven. This 7th century saint was once a wealthy and rambunctious young soldier but became a born-again Christian after the death of his wife. Bavo rejected his life of materialism and became a monk, living for a time in a hollow tree.

 

We then sought out one of the treasures we'd been told about, Van Eyck's altarpiece. "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" was finished in 1432 after the original artist, Hubert Van Eyck (1385-1426) began the painting. However, he soon died and his better-known younger brother, Jan (1395-1441) completed Hubert's vision.
 

 

It's miraculous that the piece has survived for nearly six centuries. It was hidden in the cathedral's tower during the wave of iconoclasm in the 16th century. In 1934, two of its panels were stolen--the ones depicting John the Baptist and the "Just Judges." The church recovered John the Baptist's panel but the other one never turned up (the one displayed on the replica is currently a copy). More than 75 years later, this theft remains one of Belgium's greatest unsolved mysteries. During WWII, while the altar was on its way to safe storage at the Vatican, it was caught up in the fighting and hidden in the French Pyrenees. Then it was stolen by Hitler, taken to his Bavarian castle, and then to a salt mine before US forces returned it at the war's end.*

The opportunity to see it is confusing but let me try to explain. Hilbren told us that the altarpiece is being restored and we might not be able to view all sections of it. The Rick Steves' book claims you can view a replica for free in a side chapel that originally contained the piece or pay to see the original in a small room in the back-left corner of the church.

 

As we walked up an outside aisle towards the front altar, we saw the replica--I thought--in a side chapel (on the right) where a group was listening to a gentleman. So I slipped inside the gate and started snapping photos. As I noticed the group leaving, I saw an authoritative man block others from entering and explain that they had to pay. Whoops. This is the reason for the few number of photos I snapped and their poor quality.

The altarpiece has a dozen separate paintings on each side (front and back). It was closed on weekdays, showing only the outside panels; on Sundays and holidays, it was opened to reveal the scenes inside. In the bottom middle of the panels, a big celebration includes angels,  prophets, the twelve apostles (in the right foreground), saints, popes, pilgrims, etc. A hovering dove represents the Holy Spirit and in the foreground is the well of life, spewing water and jewels. The lamb at the very center is a stand-in for Christ but also has a special meaning in Ghent, whose wool trade put the city on the map.

The other two treasures in the cathedral are an elaborately-carved pulpit and a Rubens' altar painting depicting the town's patron saint and namesake of the church. But were now hungry and needed to find some lunch before the canal tour. So we rushed off before we could give this cathedral its due.

*The recently-released film, "Monuments Men," relates the hard-to-believe moment when the Nazis manhandled this treasure of Western art, the Ghent Altarpiece--a point in the movie where truth, in fact, can be stranger than fiction.