With Cyprian through De Vrijheid in Ronse

“Verba Volant, scripta manent!” - “Words fly away, but what is written remains.”
The composer Cyprian De Rore is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the art of the madrigal in 16th-century Italy. Even during his lifetime, his contemporaries bestowed upon him the title “Omnium Musicorum Princeps” (The First Among All Musicians). Alfred Einstein, his cousin and one of the most prominent musicologists of the 20th century, placed him on the same level as Michelangelo. In addition to madrigals, De Rore wrote motets, a few chansons, and masses. He was an outstanding composer and a native of Ronse! Let’s take a journey together through De Vrijheid with the great (son of Ronse) Cyprian De Rore, who lives on worldwide thanks to his polyphonic music. He lived during a period when Ronse first flourished and then fell into crisis due to the great city fire of 1559. Seven years later came the Iconoclastic Fury… The story takes place in De Vrijheid, which was entirely under the control of the clergy. De Vrijheid was, as it were, a city within a city.
With thanks to city guide Isabelle De Vleeschauwer, cartoonist Hubert De Doncker, and illustrator Michel Provost

📏 1.5 km
🕑 1 hour
📍 Hoge Mote, De Biesestraat 2, 9600 Ronse
🏁 Sint-Hermescrypte, Sint-Hermesstraat, 9600 Ronse