Ramen van een gebouw in Veurne, België before 1887

This photograph of windows in Veurne, Belgium, comes from an anonymous source. The architecture is a mix of late medieval and early modern styles. The image suggests a fascinating point about the cultural life of architecture. The gothic arches and tracery reference a high medieval style, one associated with the wealth of the church and the aristocracy. However, the more practical rectangular windows are also visible, suggesting a later period, perhaps the early Renaissance. The presence of both styles may be read as a statement. The owners would have had a keen sense of the region’s history and of their place within it. To further understand this architecture, we might research the history of Veurne in the 15th and 16th centuries, paying attention to the families that controlled the city's institutions. We should consider what it might have meant to evoke the high middle ages in an era of political and religious conflict.