Belfries of Belgium and France

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Belfries of Belgium and France
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Belfry locations
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv
Reference	943
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1999 (23rd Session)
Extensions	2005

Belfry of Bruges

Schepenhuis, Aalst

Cloth Hall, Ypres

Belfry of Tournai

Belfry of Mons

The Belfries of Belgium and France are a group of 56 historical buildings designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Site, in recognition of an architectural manifestation of emerging civic independence from feudal and religious influences in historic Flanders and neighboring regions of the Duchy of Burgundy.

UNESCO inscribed 32 towers onto its list of Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia in 1999. In 2005, the belfry of Gembloux in the Walloon Region of Belgium and 23 belfries from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy regions in the northern tip of France were appended to the renamed list. A notable omission is the Brussels City Hall belfry, as it was already part of the Grand Place World Heritage Site.

However not all of this World Heritage group of 56 tower structures are civic/municipal monuments. Also included are three church towers on the claim that these had served as watchtowers or alarm bell towers. These are the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, the St. Rumbolds Tower in Mechelen, and the St. Leonard's Church in Zoutleeuw.

Most of these belforts are towers projecting from broader buildings. Few of them are notable as standalone tower structures, of which, a handful are remodeled standalone towers formerly connected to adjacent buildings.

Belgium

ID numbers correspond to the order in the complete list ID 943/943bis from UNESCO, see External links.

Flanders

Antwerp

West Flanders

East Flanders

Flemish Brabant

Limburg

Wallonia

Hainaut

Namur

France

Belfry of Dunkirk

Belfry of Arras

Abbeville

Nord-Pas de Calais

Nord

ID 943-033	Armentières	Belfry of the City Hall	50°41′11″N 2°52′57″E / 50.68645°N 2.8824°E / 50.68645; 2.8824
ID 943-034	Bailleul	Belfry of the City Hall	50°44′23″N 2°44′04″E / 50.7397°N 2.7344°E / 50.7397; 2.7344
ID 943-035	Bergues	Belfry	50°58′05″N 2°25′58″E / 50.9680°N 2.4327°E / 50.9680; 2.4327
ID 943-036	Cambrai	Belfry of the St. Martin's Church	50°10′27″N 3°13′56″E / 50.1742°N 3.232127°E / 50.1742; 3.232127
ID 943-037	Comines	Belfry of the City Hall	50°45′55″N 3°00′26″E / 50.7653°N 3.0072°E / 50.7653; 3.0072
ID 943-038	Douai	Belfry of the City Hall	50°22′04″N 3°04′50″E / 50.3679°N 3.0805°E / 50.3679; 3.0805
ID 943-040	Dunkirk	Belfry of the City Hall[8]	51°02′15″N 2°22′36″E / 51.0376°N 2.3768°E / 51.0376; 2.3768
ID 943-039	Dunkirk	Belfry of Dunkirk[8](former church tower attached to Saint Eligius, in the 1700s transformed into a standalone municipal belfry)	51°02′08″N 2°22′35″E / 51.0356°N 2.3763°E / 51.0356; 2.3763
ID 943-041	Gravelines	Belfry	50°59′12″N 2°07′34″E / 50.9868°N 2.1261°E / 50.9868; 2.1261
ID 943-042	Lille	Belfry of the City Hall	50°37′50″N 3°04′11″E / 50.6306°N 3.0698°E / 50.6306; 3.0698
ID 943-043	Loos	Belfry of the City Hall	50°36′54″N 3°00′53″E / 50.61507°N 3.01477°E / 50.61507; 3.01477

Pas-de-Calais

ID 943-044	Aire-sur-la-Lys	Belfry of the City Hall	50°38′19″N 2°23′47″E / 50.6385°N 2.3963°E / 50.6385; 2.3963
ID 943-045	Arras	Belfry of the City Hall	50°17′28″N 2°46′37″E / 50.2911°N 2.7770°E / 50.2911; 2.7770
ID 943-046	Béthune	Belfry	50°31′52″N 2°38′21″E / 50.5310°N 2.6392°E / 50.5310; 2.6392
ID 943-047	Boulogne-sur-Mer	Belfry of the City Hall	50°43′30″N 1°36′48″E / 50.7250°N 1.6132°E / 50.7250; 1.6132
ID 943-048	Calais	Belfry of the City Hall	50°57′10″N 1°51′15″E / 50.9529°N 1.8542°E / 50.9529; 1.8542
ID 943-049	Hesdin	Belfry of the City Hall	50°22′23″N 2°02′11″E / 50.3730°N 2.0363°E / 50.3730; 2.0363

Somme

ID 943-050	Abbeville	Belfry	50°06′26″N 1°49′58″E / 50.1073°N 1.8329°E / 50.1073; 1.8329
ID 943-051	Amiens	Belfry	49°53′44″N 2°17′46″E / 49.8955°N 2.2960°E / 49.8955; 2.2960
ID 943-052	Doullens	Belfry of the former Municipal Hall, at present the tourist information center	50°09′19″N 2°20′28″E / 50.1554°N 2.3410°E / 50.1554; 2.3410
ID 943-053	Lucheux	Belfry on the remaining City Gate	50°11′50″N 2°24′40″E / 50.1971°N 2.4112°E / 50.1971; 2.4112
ID 943-054	Rue	Belfry	50°16′21″N 1°40′07″E / 50.2725°N 1.6687°E / 50.2725; 1.6687
ID 943-055	Saint-Riquier	Belfry	50°08′03″N 1°56′47″E / 50.1342°N 1.9464°E / 50.1342; 1.9464

Gallery

• 

  Belfry of Namur

• 

  Antwerp Cathedral church tower

• 

  Belfry overlooking the old town and hanging gardens of Thuin

• 

  Belfry of Tielt

• 

  Belfry of Bergues

See also

• List of World Heritage Sites in Europe

Footnotes

1. ↑ Quote from external link Detailed argumentation for list ID 943/943bis, UNESCO Website: "The Hôtel de Ville in Antwerpen (1564) is an excellent example of the transposition of Renaissance principles in the central risalith with superposed diminishing registers flanked by obelisks and scrollwork and finished with a pediment, reiterating the theme of the central belfry." – Hôtel de Ville is French for 'City Hall', Antwerpen is the native name of 'Antwerp' in Dutch.
2. ↑ UNESCO states, inappropriately in French: ID 943-016 Tour de Saint-Rombaut ; in native Dutch language this is Sint-Romboutstoren which is the main tower of the cathedral, once also used as a watchtower against fires.
3. ↑ UNESCO states, inappropriately in French: ID 943-015 Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi ; in native Dutch language this is Oude [or: Voormalige] Halle met Belfort. This 14th-century Cloth Hall with never to its designed height built Belfry – both hardly ever used for the intended purposes – with more recent adjacent buildings, constitute the present-day City Hall.
4. ↑ The belfry is known as Halletoren, because of an adjacent Cloth Hall that no longer exists; the tower is now free-standing.
5. ↑ The belfry is known as Hallentoren or Tower of the Halls, plural: of the two adjacent wings or halls, only one remains, hence Cloth Hall, singular.
6. ↑ The city centre's Landhuis (literally: 'country-house') was once the seat of the kasselrij or burggraafschap (viscounty) Veurne-Ambacht, serving the countryside; here as opposed to the adjacent Stadhuis (literally: 'city-house' though always meaning the City Hall) serving the city. The Landhuis later became the Court of Justice and recently a place for cultural purposes, e.g. exhibitions, dance acts, concerts, etc.
7. ↑ The name Mammelokker (assumedly: 'Allurer of breasts') for the guard house at the part of the Cloth Hall that once served as a prison, refers to the story of a prisoner.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 UNESCO states: ID 943-040 Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville, ID 943-039 Beffroi de l'église Saint-Eloi – further reading from other source: (French) Monuments in Dunkirk

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Belfries of Belgium and France.

• Brief description of the ensemble ID 943/943bis, UNESCO Website
• Detailed argumentation for list ID 943/943bis, UNESCO Website
• The complete list ID 943/943bis, UNESCO Website (monuments ordered by UNESCO ID, which precedes the corresponding monument in this Wikipedia article's main list)
• Articles on the phenomenon of the belfries from the Flemish Department of Monuments and Landscapes
• The Belgian belfries on the UNESCO list ID 943 (without Gembloux) with photographs and slideshows – from the Flemish Department of Monuments and Landscapes
• (French) The French belfries on the UNESCO list ID 943bis with photographs and descriptions; and a general article
• (French) The French belfries on the UNESCO list ID 943bis with thumbnails, photographs and descriptions

World Heritage Sites in Belgium Brussels Grand Place Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta Stoclet House Flanders Belfries of Belgium and France1 Bruges (historic centre) Flemish Béguinages Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex Wallonia Belfries of Belgium and France1 Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre Neolithic flint mines at Spiennes Notre-Dame Cathedral of Tournai Major Mining Sites of Wallonia 1 Shared locally with other regions and with France

World Heritage Sites in France Île-de-France Palace and Park of Versailles Palace of Fontainebleau and Park Paris – Banks of the Seine Provins Routes of Santiago de Compostela1 Parisian basin Amiens Cathedral Belfries of Belgium and France2 Bourges Cathedral Chartres Cathedral Cathedral of Notre-Dame, former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay Fortifications of Vauban1 Le Havre Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes1 Mont Saint-Michel and its Bay1 Routes of Santiago de Compostela1 Vézelay Church and Hill Nord-Pas-de-Calais Belfries of Belgium and France2 Fortifications of Vauban1 East Fortifications of Vauban1 Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains and Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance, Nancy Strasbourg – Grande Île Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps4 West Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe Fortifications of Vauban1 Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes1 Mont Saint-Michel and its Bay1 Routes of Santiago de Compostela1 South West Albi Bordeaux Canal du Midi1 Fortifications of Vauban1 Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley Pyrénées - Mont Perdu3 Routes of Santiago de Compostela1 Saint-Émilion Centre East Chauvet Cave Lyon Routes of Santiago de Compostela1 Mediterranean Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments Canal du Midi1 Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne Fortifications of Vauban1 Gulf of Porto Calanches de Piana Gulf of Girolata Scandola Reserve Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge, Avignon Pont du Gard Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and Triumphal Arch of Orange Routes of Santiago de Compostela1 Overseas departments and territories Lagoons of New Caledonia Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island 1 Shared with other region/s 2 Shared locally with other region/s and with Belgium 3 Shared with Spain 4 Shared with Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland