2005GhentLetter

2005 Letter from Ghent:We got to Ghent (from Paris) in about four hours instead of our usual three – but it was still early. After eating lunch, we took the bus into Centre Ville. Gent was a very rich, important town in the Middle Ages. Since then, it expanded into a modern city. Its great beauty is the central area of the medieval city where there are four beautiful cathedrals in a row. It is a matter of amazement to us that what must have been a small population could have supported the building of so many impressive cathedrals. There are also a number of other large buildings, many beautiful 500 years old warehouses along the canals and the impressive Gravenstein Castle from the same era.

We’ve been in Gent before, and seen all this, but we really like the city so we were pleased to be back. Our first stops were in two of the beautiful churches. Then we went to view Gent’s greatest treasure, an altarpiece called "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb". This is one of the greatest art treasures in the world. It was painted for a chapel in the Church of St. Baaf. This huge series of twelve paintings was the work of two brothers. Jan Van Eyck is the more famous of the two. We’ve seen it before, but we decided to look in at it again. The audioguide informed us, among other things, that this set of paintings is as full of the most important Christian symbols as any painting can be. Practically every brush stroke has some significance in Christian theology. But the paintings are so artfully organized and executed that one can know nothing about the symbolism and still appreciate them simply as great paintings.

After seeing the altarpiece, we walked around the side chapels of the huge cathedral. One of them had a full size color photo of the Van Eyck alterpiece which we had just seen in its special room. The volunteer docent asked Ron where we came from. When he heard that we were Americans, he volunteered the information that "we" – that is, the people of Belgium and particularly of Gent – are deeply in debt to the wonderful Americans. That’s when he told us the story of the altarpiece during World War II.

Neither of us can remember all the details that this 92-year old man told us, because the story was a complicated one. The Nazis conquered Belgium at the beginning of World War II, and one of the things they did early on was to take the altarpiece out of the cathedral. It was taken to Germany where it then passed through the hands of several high-ranking Nazis, including Goering, who gave it as a "gift" to Hitler. When the Allies were advancing across Europe, to "protect" his new possession, Hitler sent it first to Bavaria and then to a salt mine in the same region where it would not be damaged by bombs. After the Americans occupied Germany, the U.S. Army found the altarpiece, and, as the docent said, "Instead of taking it back to New York, they returned it to St. Baaf’s. We are very, very grateful to the Americans". He ended this recitation with saying how much Belgium owed to the Americans, and he said it in such a way that we were both moved emotionally with a feeling of pride that our country had acted in this way.