The Secular And Italian Gothic Architecture  The great
comparative perfection of Gothic painting in the southern
Netherlands leads naturally to the mention of the magnificent
guild halls and town halls of the same country. The finest
secular buildings ever erected in Europe, outside of Italy, are
the late Gothic public buildings of Belgium, and once more it is
to the commerce and manufactures and resulting great wealth and
power of the country that we must turn for an explanation. The
constant alliance between the English kings and the Burgundian
Dukedom during the Franco-English wars was owing to the
interests of the wool trade–the raw material being furnished by
England and the manufactures by the Netherlands. Among the
magnificent examples of this secular Gothic are the great halls
of Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Louvain, and Oudenarde. In France
the Palais de Justice (town hall) of Rouen is the finest
corresponding example. In England there are some of the best
survivals of the old feudal castles and of the m