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| Currencies of Europe, Belgium - 5000 Francs note |
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| European banknotes 5000 Francs |
Belgian banknotes, Belgian paper money, Belgian bank notes, Belgium banknotes, Belgium paper money, Belgium bank notes.
Obverse: Portrait of Andreas Vesalius at right, lesser version of the coat of arms of the City of Brussels - golden Archangel Michael (the patron saint of Brussels) slaying a black Devil by piercing it with a spear shaped like a cross. at left.
Reverse: White marble classic statue of Aesculapius from the temple of Asclepios at Epidaurus and some characters in the Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus at the background.
Watermark: Portrait of King Baldwin I ( Baudouin I - King of the Belgians ).
Prevailing colour - Green on multicolored background; Format 84 x 167.5 mm
Graphic artist - Florenzo Marino-Bessi ; Engravers - C. Leclercqz and H. Decuyper.
Signatures: Governor - Hubert Ansiaux (signed notes 08/08/1957 - 17/02/1971), Treasurer - Maurice Jordens (signed notes 30/10/1968 - 02/06/1977).
Andreas Vesalius (Brussels 31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564), Flemish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body). Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. He was professor at the University of Padua and later became Imperial physician at the court of Emperor Charles V.
Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and the son of Apollo, was revered as a forefather of the art of medicine in the many centuries before and after Hippocrates, and his symbol, the staff and serpent, has come to represent medicine, the healing profession. Asclepian medicine after the fifth century BC took place in an era of change of Greek and Roman medicine from being wholly based on magic and religious rituals to an objective approach with history taking and recording and examination of body parts, and treatment using diet, mineral baths, exercise, and plant and herbal treatments. There are several interpretations of the meaning of both the knotted wooden staff and the serpent, they both represent healing powers, but rational as well as supernatural.
Asclepius (Asklepios) was a much-worshiped ancient Greek god of health and well-being, and his sanctuary at Epidauros was, in extent, the rival of such major cult sites as the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi. Its major temple to the healing god, the Temple of Asclepios at Epidauros, was built in the early fourth century BCE.
The temple was Doric, six columns by eleven, measuring ca. 80 meters in length.