A place in The Netherlands of long ago.
This book says, that ancient history says that tribes of Celtic culture lived near the Rhine in Northern Gaul in the time of the Roman Empire. Gaul was an ancient region of Western Europe, which today we know as the region of France, Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy and Germany, Belgium and the Netherands. These tribes were the last to fight of the Roman legions, but were defeated eventually, and forgotten.
But then so were the Romans, eventually.
Centuries passed from the time of Julius Ceasar BCE into the common era and in the mid 600's CE Rome was again travelling to region of Gaul.
This time it was a missionary who believed the region was
"... a country beyond the Scheldt called Gand, where dwelt a wild people who had forgotten God, and who worshipped trees, and that so rude was this land, and so fierce were its inhabitants, that no missionary had hitherto ventured there."
And so, because he was a missionary, he made it his mission to go to this land. The 'resuscitated Celts' were eventually baptized and St Amand the missionary left his legacy.
"... at Bruges they still show the rude chapel on the banks of the Roya in which St. Amand baptized his first neophytes."
This is all according to the book, The Story of Bruges published 1901.
And then there came The Vikings.
"Fleanderland, the land that is of the Fleming, of the exile, the land whose hospitable shore had given to the victorious Viking a haven for his ships and a foot or two of solid, earth on which to pitch his tent. But this was almost one thousand four hundred years before you who read this now. "
This continent so rich with culture and a legacy of cult of warriors seems ever unable to cultivate longstanding harmony among its peoples. The town of Waterloo where Napoleon's years of battle ended is today only an hour and a half drive from Bruges.
Maybe we can recall a modern man called Charles de Gaulle, of Gaul?, who lived not so long ago, and fought battles in modern Europe, in the war known as World War Two. In this war the battle of the Sheldt was a large military operation on Dutch soil. -see the Side Notes for more on this.
Before Waterloo Napoleon was in Bruges, in 1810, during a period when the civic authorities were thinking of pulling down St Basil's chapel due to the state of decay it had fallen to. It was in all probability the most ancient building in Bruges. It is reported in this little book that Napoleon overheard a discussion of this and said
"That shall never be. WhenI look at those graceful minarets, I fancy myself in Egypt.
To destroy a monument like that would be a sin crying for vengeance."
But how does the story of Bruges go on. As for the records and archives of the medieval Bruges,
"The municipal rolls go back to the year 1280, and included amongst them are the annual accounts of the city from 1281 to 1789, almost complete."
The mysteries and histories of this ancient place are buried in the landscapes and lifescapes. So it is understood by us now, as it was written a hundred years ago in the Story of Bruges, The stranger who having hurried through ...
And so the little book, which I can hold in the palm of my hand, is in our collective memory of a story not only of a place, but maybe even of our ancestors. Stories, or are they memories, of days and of times. Stories to measure who we were and who we are, and if over the course of centuries we have come very far.
Travel over to the Side Notes for a few more details images and resources.
