Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is a Roman Catholic church in Brussels. The church was given cathedral status in 1962 and has since been the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, together with St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen. The dimensions of the building are: exterior length 114 metres (374 ft), interior length 109 metres (358 ft), exterior width at the choir 57 metres (187 ft), interior width 54 metres (177 ft) and height of towers 64 metres (210 ft). The cathedral is built of stone from the Gobertange quarry, which is located approximately 45 km south-east of the site of the Cathedral. The western facade with its three portals surmounted by gables and two towers are typical of the French Gothic style, but without a rose window, which was replaced by a large window in the Brabantian Gothic style. The two towers, the upper parts of which are arranged in terraces, are attributed to the Flemish architect Jan Van Ruysbroeck (1470–1485), who also designed the tower of Brussels' Town Hall. The south tower contains a 49-bell carillon by the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry on which Sunday concerts are often given. The Salvator bell was cast by Peter van den Gheyn. At the end of the 1990s, Brussels ornithologists discovered a couple of peregrine falcons hibernating on top of the towers of the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. In 2001, ornithologists of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) in association with the Fonds d'Intervention pour les Rapaces installed a laying-nest on the edifice in an attempt to encourage nest-building. This laying-nest was never used, but in the spring of 2004, a pair of falcons nested on a balcony on top of the cathedral's northern tower. At the beginning of March, the female laid three eggs. As a result of watching the three chicks perform acrobatic feats on the cathedral's gargoyles, at the end of May 2004, the project 'Falcons for everyone' was developed by the RBINS in association with the Commission Ornithologique de Watermael-Boitsfort. The project installed cameras with a live video stream on their website.