The cathedral of Tournai in Belgium is one of the most impressive and significant in
Europe and has been designated by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage. Music history
was written here: the cathedral library contains the manuscript of a polyphonic mass
ordinary compiled around the year 1300 which unites movements by various composers
and written in different styles. This makes it the direct predecessor of the first
masses written by single composers, such as the Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut.