The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1920-10-30
ANTWERP. A LATTER-DAY
ATHENS


ATHENS
Antwerp, where the United States
athletes performed so notably in the
1920 Olympic games was Europe's
Hamburg Of the sixteenth century
and the Athens Of the seventeenth.
This city compels American admira-
ton by its phenomenal power to
come back" Crushed by wars, in
QUESTIONS. economic bans and persecu-
lions Of its people. Antwerp always
has risen again.
Figures tell the story. Population
In 1868. 125,000; twenty years later,
only 5000. From 1900 to 1850 the
population almost doubled. To its
100000 in 1904, hundred thousand
more were added before the Germans
came In October, 1914. The 1880
vessels that passed in and out of its
nne harbor In 1905 marked an in
crease Of more than so per cent since
1883.
!. Not that Antwerp Is a perennial
boom town. It is at least Is centur-
ies old And during that time it's
story Is one Of struggle against re-
peated tragedies. When the Germans
invaded the city its noble cathedral
tower looked down on just one more,
though infinitely more cruel, blow Of
the sort it had been receiving since
the middle ages. Napoleon (some say
Charles W compared this tower to
Mechlin lace. Its delicate chiseling
forms q network Of stone embroidery
against the sky that can be seen from
the surrounding fiat country, and from
the winding Scheldt, long before any
other building in Antwerp is visible.
BY 1000. five hundred ships often
came and went from Antwerp's har-
0or in a day and two thousand wagon
loads Of merchandise usually entered
its gates. A thousand foreign busi-
ness houses were represented there.
Its OWL merchant princes dwelt in al
most regal splendor.
Amid this material wealth noble
works af art were created. In the
city's museum were specimens of its
glorious school-paintings by Van
Dyck. the Teniers, Memling, Massys
Jordaens, Jan van Eyck and Rubens,
though the last named was better
represented in the cathedral by his
'The Descent From the
Cross" and two other noted works.
In the Museo Plantin were relics
Of that Ebert Hubbard Of the middle
ages, Chrstophe Plantin, whose press
product was no less distinctive when
hereto pamphlets were struck OF
than when devout religious works
were printed and embossed.
During the religious disturbances Of
the mid<sixteenth century the cathe-
dral, then considered second only to
st. Peters at Rome. was pillaged by
the Icoroclasts. Its images and pic
lures, its magnificent vases, it's &c al
tars and its great organ, considered
the finest Of its time, were burned or
broken by the torch-bearing vandals.
Whitewashed walls reminded twen-
tourists Of these depre-
datiOnS.
Other churches were ravaged at |
that time. But what Antwerp suffer-
ed then was mild compared to the
horrors of ''the Spanish Fury In 1876,
when that latter day Nero, the duke
Of Alva, and his Council Of Blood,
began reign of terror which saw
agery scarcely could surpass. Tying |
wealthy citizens to horses tails, he |
would drag them miles to trial"
Antwerp suffered grievously from
his debauch Of hangings, quarterings,
and butcheries. In three |
lays 5000 of her men. women and !
children were slain, burned or drown
ID: hundreds Of the fine marble homes /
destroyed, and the equivalent of mill
ions Of dollars worth Of property |
wrecked.
It was seven years later that the
doughty citizens Of Antwerp made
hort shrift of the duke Of Anjou's
,lotting against Flemish liberty. When
he duke and his men overcame the
flemish guard Of a drawbridge, and
',0O0 Of the dukes troops rushed in
. take the city, workmen fought furi-
,usly with their oven shovels, and cit
zens grabbed arquebuses and chewed
.0ins into shape to load them.
NJ i