The road to Damme

[anglomedved]

The abbey at Male

It rained and it rained and it rained. Rarely hard, but incessantly. I had decided on a day's walk in the country, so had dropped off MmeKordukova with the good camera in Bruges, Belgium's number one tourist city, then driven out of the city and parked the car at the Abbey of Male at the edge of the suburbs. Attractive building, but a bit awesome for a women’s convent. More like a castle. I slipped inside into the chapel, and out again very quickly – all in that soul-destroying ‘stripped bare concrete’ style of the two post-Vatican II decades.

The six kilometres to Damme, my destination, became eight because a farmer had put up a ‘Privaat domein’ notice across the shortest route. So I skirted a very long way round. This took me past a large church by Jean de Béthune, the leading neo-Gothic architect, way too large for the tiny village of Vijvekapelle in which it is situated, flanked on the one side by the neo-Gothic buildings of a girl’s school (originally run of course by nuns) and on the other side by the neo-Gothic buildings of a boy’s school (originally run of course by brothers). Needless to say the nuns and brothers are long gone, and the church itself has only two masses a month. But both the church and the school buildings kept in good repair, as a matter of civic pride.                                                                                                                                                   


    
  Damme church outside                                                                                                      Damme church inside

Eventually I arrived at Damme. This used to be the port for Bruges, with a bustling wealthy community, which built a large brick church to match those of Bruges itself. Then the port silted up and Damme, like Bruges itself, entered several centuries of slumber. Much of the town disappeared. The church became too big and was partly demolished. What is left is rather attractive both inside and out. Several artefacts inside, beautifully preserved and cared for, show why Belgium used to be justly famous for the quality of its church fittings, even if it feels more like a free museum than a place of prayer. Mass is said there just once a month.