Cologne Cathedral is so wide for its length that to many people it doesn’t seem as beautiful as the French cathedrals.Its twin western towers with their tall spires are so big and bulky at the bottom thai they make the rest of the building look smaller than it is.The proportions of one part of the building compared with another are not as fine as they might be.This means the building doesn’t look just right as a whole，although each part by itself may be correctly and splendidly made.Of course the young architect knew these faults，but he could forget the cathedral’s imperfections as he gazed with awe at the thousands of carved stone figures，the pinnacles，towers，and flying buttresses that make this building one of the best known in the world.It is magnificent，huge，impressive.
From Cologne my friend flew to Antwerp，in Belgium.There he went to see the most impressive church in Belgium—Antwerp Cathedral.This cathedral has a place for two towers on its western front，but only one tower is there.The other one was never built.Where it might have been is just a little steeple.
The one big tower rises high in the air and becomes narrower at the top，like a spire.
It has so much stone carving on it that it looks like lace-work made of stone.The tower is graceful，but the lacy look seems a little too fancy.Probably Antwerp Cathedral really looks better for having only one tower.Two towers might have made the building seem mostly towers，like Cologne Cathedral.
This is just one of the many beautiful towers in Belgium.Many of them are not on churches at all but stand by themselves.They are often called singing towers because the bells inside ring out beautiful music.Singing towers were often useful as well as beautiful.The peal of the bells called the people together，spread an alarm in time of danger，and rang out in triumph to announce good news.Belgium can be proud of her beautiful Gothic towers.
No.76-1TOWN HAIL BRUSSELS（布鲁塞尔市政大厅）Besides the singing towers there are many other Gothic buildings in Belgium that aren’t churches.Gothic architecture suits churches well because it seems to be trying to reach up to heaven.The most beautiful Gothic buildings are churches，but many of the other Belgian Gothic buildings are beautiful too.Naturally，these buildings would not be shaped like a cross.Some of them have towers and spires like churches and some have not.Some were built by the towns for town halls where the public business was carried on.Some were built as club houses，or headquarters，for gilds.Each kind of trade orbusiness had its own gild，or band of skilled workers.There were gilds of stonemasons，goldsmiths，ship captains，merchants，butchers，bakers，and candlestick makers.Of course each gild wanted its own club house.Some of the Belgian gild houses show very beautiful Gothic architecture.
Many of the Gothic town halls and gild houses had steep roofs with rows of dormer windows.You know，a dormer window is the kind that sticks out of a sloping roof.The Cloth Hall at Ypres was one of the most famous of the Belgian buildings of the Middle Ages.But my friend the architect got to Belgium too late to see it.It was burned down during World War I.
“From Belgium，”the young architect told me，“I took a plane to Spain.I wanted to see the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.It is in the little Spanish town of Burgos.The twin towers with their tall spires reminded me a little of the towers of Cologne.There is a big eight-sided tower in the middle，besides the two spires at the end.Around the cathedral at Burgos are cloisters，chapels，and an archbishop’s palace.”
Burgos is in the northern part of Spain and is more like French and German cathedrals than the Spanish churches farther south.The Moors from Arabia had long ruled the south of Spain and the Gothic cathedrals there have many details that were suggested to the Spanish builders by the Moorish buildings.In another chapter I’ll tell you about these Moorish buildings.
No.76-2THE DOGE’S PALACE，VENICE（威尼斯总督府）Now for a quick trip across the Pyrenees，across France，across the Alps to Italy.My friend knew what he wanted to see there—the Gothic buildings of Venice.
On the square of St.Mark stands the Cathedral of St.Mark with its five domes and Byzantine architecture.Next to St.Mark’s on the square stands a long building four stories high.It is called the Doge’s Palace.The Doge was the duke and ruler of Venice.The palace of the doges is Gothic （notice the pointed arches），but it is quite different from all other Gothic buildings.The two lower stories have long rows of the pointed arches on columns.Rows of arches like these，you remember，are called arcades.The arcades form covered porches around the Doge’s Palace.
The upper hall of the Doge’s Palace has flat walls of pink and white marble in a pattern.The flat upper half of the walls makes the fancier lower half look better，in just the way an old automobile makes a new one look newer.If more of the Doge’s Palace was like the upper part it would be too plain.As it is the whole building makes a beautiful part of the beautiful square of St.Mark.
Other smaller palaces and houses in the Gothic style can be found in Venice.You have to take a boat to see them，for most of them are on streets that are made of water.A boat can take you right up to the water steps leading to the front door.That’s what my architect friend did.He took a boat called a gondola and saw all he could see in the three days he had left before he had to sail for New York.On his trip home across the Atlantic he pasted in an album the photographs he had taken and he was glad that airplane traveling had let him get the pictures of—Cologne Cathedral Antwerp Cathedral
A singing tower of Belgium A Gothic gild hallThe cathedral at Burgos The Doge’s PalaceSome small Venetian palaces And ...a gondola.
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