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A Concise Description of Flanders - Introduction
July 11, 2002 features the 700th anniversary of a -romanticized- battle of the county of Flanders against the French king and his knights. During the 19th century this day became a symbol for the recovering self esteem of the people of Flanders, after two or three centuries of cultural degradation. . . . Although Flanders is known by most as the northern part of Belgium, this is only the case since 1830, when Belgium was created as a buffer state between the big European Powers of that moment. During more than a millenary, Flanders had its own cultural and scientific history. Some important but too often forgotten facts are gathered on this pages. Misinformation about Flanders is probably largely due to certain factors, including: (1) for nearly one and a half century, information about Flanders was filtered by a French speaking ruling minority, (2) short stay visitors, who limit their visit to Brussels - a largely French speaking enclave in Flanders-, have the false impression to be in a French speaking country . . . For such a small region, Flanders was surprisingly fertile in cultural and scientific contributions to Western culture. This could be explained by several psychological, social and economic factors, including: a cross-fertilization between Latin and Germanic ways of thinking, a fertile region, an early rupture with suffocating feudal situations, attraction of many European businessmen and patrons, a self-confident but non-aggressive view of life. . . . Now that Brussels, situated in Flanders, is becoming Europe's capital you might want to learn more about the homeland of so many important scientists, writers, musicians, sculptors, painters, architects, and mystics.

posted by LoZo 10:16 AM