Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/285

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HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
247

wards the beginning of the present century. The real town is inside this circle of Boulevards. The most important road in the upper town is the Rue Royale, with its continuation the Rue de la Regence. If we follow the line of this road, we will have seen most of the remarkable buildings in the upper i. e. the eastern half of the town.

Let us commence from the extreme south, i. e. where the Rue de la Regence terminates and the magnificent pile of the Palais de Justice towers on the view. Palais de Justice.It looks, from its vastness and grandeur, like an ancient Assyrian or Egyptian monument. The massive pile stands on a square 590 ft. by 560 ft., arises in successive sections gradually diminishing in bulk, until the edifice ends in a small dome and a cross on it, the top of which is 400 feet from the pavement.

The interior of this vast edifice is no less imposing. The flights of stairs ascending to the vestibule are adorned with colossal marble statues of Domosthenes and Lycurgus on one side and of Cicero and Ulpian on the other. Entering the door I looked on the large hall with broad massive pillars rising on all sides, majestic in their simplicity and vastness. I seemed to be looking on some great Doric or Ionic temple of bygone ages, where Herculean men came to worship Titanic gods in silence. After almost losing my way amidst a number of silent and dimly lighted passages and going up and down several spacious flights of marble stairs I found my way into a court room where astute advocates were