Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-09-24
D(J JI(f1 y
TOWERS
3e NARTN CONWAY

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seventeenth century. Then ships
of Holland sailed all the seven seas and brought
home wealth and tales of adventure Then its
sailors hammered at the arctic ice-pack and
pushed their trade among tropical spice Islands.
Then 1t that De Ruyter sailed up the Thames
with broom at his masthead: then, too that
Rembrandt painted and Vondel rhymed That
also for Holland was great building age. when
prosperity caused cities to grow, canals 10 Do
dug, ports to be built, and the multiplex activity
of Dutchmen to manifest itself in all kinds OF
makings and shapings upon the surface OF their
amphibious land-Ialf earth, half water. Thus
1t is the Holland of Rembrandt's day and there
about that remains most interesting to the trav-
eer and 1t is the buildings then erected that are
most worthy of study and presentation within
her towns
Amsterdam. when Rembrandt went to settle
there about 1881, was passing architecturally
through period of transition The small core
of the city. where everything was on a small
scale, still retained many remnants OF the me-
dieVal age The canals in it were narrow, the
accommodation for ships was exiguous. grow
ing population and expanding trade were finding
themselves horribly cramped.
Amsterdam grew like onion, by layers sur
rounding layers about a center. From time to
time new rings of canals were added with radtal
connections, and then more rings outside them
Or course fortified walls were erected round the
whole at different dates but they never lasted for
long and had to be replaced by new circuits as
the city expanded. The moat Of each new circuit
became canal within the next. Those who were
responsible for the important changes made at
the beginning OF the seventeenth century had the
good sense not TO destroy every memorial OF
medieval days. In particular they spared some
of the old fortifcation towers. applying them to
new purpose and refitting them accordingly Thus
the tower called Montelbaanstoren. which still
stands by the old Schans. of the largest
basins of the earlier canal system, was a part OF
the medieval fortifcations. They turned 1t into
a picturesque bell tower by the addition of
set nm in he
this was done before Rembrandts day. he omitted
the steeple in admirable drawing he made of
II, thus giving one among countless instances
that might be cited. of his attachment rather to
the past than to the coming taste of the people
of his day. The only other high tower at Am
sterdam drawn by him was the Westertoren or
tower of the Westerkerk on the Prinsengracht
which unfortunately. we cannot produce In this
place That tower favorite with the folk
of Amsterdam. and have more than once found
IL referred to, in narratives of Dutch exploration
as measure OF height, as. for instance. when
glacier cliff is said to have stood out OF the sea
about high the Westertoren. 1t is storied
tower, composed OF four retreating rectangular
stages, each with columns at the angles not
unlike some of Wren's towers in the city OF Lon.
don.
The Westertoren however carries down
rather too late when Palladian ideas af-
fecting Dutch architects This was feature of
the change of taste, which made the art of Rem
brandt old fashioned and terminated his pros.
perity. The Mint tower of 1910. and the others
shown in illustrations, examples OF Am
sterdam steeple architecture Of Rembrandts own
generation. II they must be called fantastic they
certainly picturesque. and admirably suited
to enliven canal vista or to poke up out Of
foreground of crow-stepped gables.
/ These the typcally Dutch towers, these
buildings of the great days of Dutch romance.
Earlier towers can find in Holland. but they
are Gothic and re-echo the style elaborated in
France France also set the key OF architectural
xyle in the eighteenth century. In the seven
teenth century Holland stood on her own feet.
and other folk initiated the work of her artists.
The Dutch style affected England; II imi-
tated in the remarkable buildings erected in Den
mark for Christian ~. 1t penetrated to the ends
of the earth. II went with Dutch Adventures to
New York, to Ceylon, to the Cape of Good Hope.
where examples of 1t may still be hunted out by
patient searching.
Our illustrations include few of the earlier
towers OF Holland. about which word two
must be said. Here, for instance. the Cathe-
dral and one OF the medieval gates of Maastricht,
neither of them in any sense characteristically
Dutch, for the Holland that the world admres
created in the fire of the Reformation
The cathedral church of st. Servatus at Mas
tricht is OF early Christian foundation. and it is
claimed that portions of the existing walls
date back to the sixth century. The building as
We see 1t, however. is a great romanesque
church of Rhenish style, with restored eleventh
century towers at the angles of its apse and a
later Gothic bell tower adjacent to a side aisle
Utrecht and Delft have bell towers of like kind
the upper story being many-sided and many
gabled. Another such tower is in Paradise itself
If are to believe Hubert Van Eyck's picture of
that delectable land. the famous atarpiece still
at Client. unless the Germans have carried it of
Medieval Maastricht was not a large place
The Cathedral was in the center of it; not more
than five hundred yards away the remains of
the city walls of 1890 The exigencies Of war
make the military architecture of given date
everywhere much the same. Thus the tower.
hanked south gate of Maastricht is not different
in design from many another that can be found
In the old cities of Europe. But though II had