Tournai Cathedral
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels,
Tournai, known as Tornacum, was a place of minor importance in Roman times, a stopping place where the Roman road from Cologne on the Rhine to Boulogne on the coast crossed the river Scheldt. It was fortified under Maximian in the third century,[1] when the Roman limes was withdrawn to the string of outposts along the road. It came into the possession of the Salian Franks in 432. Under king Childeric I, who was buried or reburied there,[2] Tournai was the capital of the Frankish empire. In 486, Clovis moved the center of power to Paris. In turn, a native son of Tournai, Eleutherius, became bishop of the newly created bishopric of Tournai, extending over most of the area west of the Scheldt. In 862 Charles the Bald, first king of Western Francia and still to become Holy Roman Emperor, would make Tournai the seat of the County of Flanders.
Tournai is considered to be one of the most important cultural sites in Belgium. The mixed Romanesque—and Gothic—style cathedral of Notre Dame de Tournai and the belfry, the oldest in Belgium, have been jointly designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Inside the cathedral, the Châsse de Notre-Dame flamande, a beautifully ornate 12th-century reliquary, gives witness to Tournai's wealth in the Middle Ages. Other places of interest are the 13th-century Scheldt bridge (Pont-des-Trous) and the main square (Grand'Place), as well as several old city gates, historic warehouses, and a variety of museums.
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