The Great Procession of Tournai

Our Lady with the dark face, or Our Lady of Flanders Cathedral Church, polychrome stone statue, 16^th century.

For a long time, the cathedral has sheltered a statue of the Virgin. This statue was destroyed by the iconoclasts in 1566. The next year, a spanish officer in garrison in Tournai gave, as a replacement, a white-stoned, polychrome statue. Following a tradition of the Middle Age, the statue of Our Lady with the dark face always wears a cape.