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ITN Source
BELGIUM: Chocolate fair is held in Medieval town
BELGIUM: Chocolate fair is held in Medieval town
Sometimes described as the Venice of the North, Bruges' historical city centre is a maze of winding cobbled alleys and romantic canal listed on the UNESCO World Heritage site. From being a major trade centre of north-west Europe in the Middle Ages, Bruges has developed into the tourist and chocolate capital it is today. And for five days over Easter (April 6-10), chocolate makers and chocolate fans gather here for a chocolate extravaganza involving chocolate sculptures, chocolate body painting, chocolate making and chocolate testing. The highlight of this year's 'Choco-Late' festival is the creation of a chocolate statue made out of a block of four thousand kilograms of chocolate. Bart Leenhouwer and Sophie Martens, two sculptors, face the challenge of transforming this giant bloc into Quetzalcoatl, one of the gods of the Toltec empire (the present Mexico) who brought the cocoa bean from the Garden of Eden to the people, according to the legend. Half snake and half bird, Quetzalcoatl reigned over a prosperous empire until other Gods became jealous of his popularity and poisoned him. Raging with lunacy, Quetzalcoatl burnt all the houses and the cocoa beans in his kingdom. ''In a certain way, it feels like sculpting wood but this is something that melts and it melts everywhere. It's into your overall, it's getting in your pants, your socks, but for the rest, it's very amusing too,'' Leenhouwer described. ''It was even easier than wood because in wood you have a fibre, here it's completely removed so you don't have any fibre, you don't have any direction to cut. You can cut freely everywhere you want to,'' Martens said. In another room, Mr. Farugia, from Malta, is sculpting a Madonna out of white chocolate. Mr. Farugia said he modelled his Madonna on the marble sculpture by Michelangelo that can be found in the nearby church 'Our Lady's Church'. Made for the Cathedral of Sienna in Italy, two Bruges merchants brought it back from a business trip in Italy in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the website of Bruges tourist office indicated. Professional chocolate makers and students' chocolate creations are competing to get the most votes out of the public, in two parallel competitions. Everything can be sculpted in chocolate, and the proof is here. Chocolate dogs barks for real, and one can admire fanciful hats and designer handbags, all made out of... chocolate. New beauty treatments like chocolate facials are becoming available more widely, but chocolate body painting may not be everyone's taste yet. Her assistants warmed the chocolate in a pan before applying it delicately on her body. ''The warm make-up feels good on my skin, it's easier than I thought,'' the young model said. With so many chocolate creations displayed here, Quetzalcoatl may decide to come back on earth - if only for a few days over the Easter period.
ITN Source | April 7, 2007
