A mountain of stone.
Must be a reference to the mountain from which Steven Matto got his Namur stone. That must have been the quarry in Seilles near Namur, where he came from. He was not only the builder of this house (or at least the renovator of the facade), but also a merchant of Namur stone and a stonemason. This was not only his livelihood, but apparently yielded so much wealth that he was able to provide his house with a stone facade that was also lavishly decorated.
By the way, Matto acquired other houses at Stokstraat 31 and 46, and also IN THE GALLEY in Muntstraat, whose gable stone is relocated at Tongersestraat 3.
The depiction of the mountain requires some imagination. But look at the nice details: animals that come crawling out of the mountain.
The mountain is part of a compound gable decoration of cartouches (frames) with text and date, in which the mountain is carried by putti (winged child figures) and flanked by St. Nicholas and St. Luke.
Patron saints
These two saints are easily recognisable from the attributes with which they are depicted. Saint Luke as the evangelist with a book and a feather pen. And at his feet the ox, with which he is normally represented.
Saint Nicholas as a bishop with mitre and staff. The three children in the tub refer to their miraculous rescue, which is attributed to Saint Nicholas.
These are undoubtedly the two patron saints with whom the owner, as a merchant and stone-mason, had direct dealings. Undoubtedly, he also fetched his stones from the Ardennes by ship and was therefore also a boatman.
This explains his connection with these two saints: St. Luke as the patron saint of the masons' craft, to which the stone-masons belonged, and St. Nicholas, the patron saint of boatmen and the patron saint of the parish, to which Stokstraat 28 belonged.
In 1662 Steven Matto bought the building at Stokstraat 26-28, which was then still called 'het reypken'. In 1669 the son provided his parental home with a new facade in 'pierre de Namur', - Namur blue stone - and the possibly by then already changed house name was recorded on the gable stone.
The upstairs windows were later extended downwards, so that the garlands next to the mountain were moved to the rear facade. But they were put back in 1965 during the restoration of the Stokstraatkwartier, thus restoring the original facade layout.
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