Brussel Grand-Place

The Grand Place is the central square of the City of Brussels. Internationally renowned for its ornamental and aesthetic richness, it is bordered by the houses of the corporations, the Town Hall and the King's House.

The Grand Place is considered one of the most beautiful squares in the world (according to Victor Hugo, among others, who stayed in Brussels). The Grand Place of Brussels was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.

The Brussels City Council is a bit optimistic when it commemorates the reconstruction of the Grand-Place in 1697. In fact, when the center of the City was destroyed by a terrifying bombardment of the French Army in 1695, its reconstruction was surprisingly quick, but 2 years were not enough...

The reconstruction does not have unanimous support from its actors. Governor Maximilian of Bavaria is young, he is 33 years old and has very modern ideas. The government of the City is divided between the patrician lineages and the corporate nations, two bodies that have become very conservative at this time. This contradiction is reflected in urbanistic ideas.

The conservatives still cling to the social model of the medieval city that functions without a strong central power. For them, social organization is made up of a whole network of associations: trades at the professional level, oaths at the military level, and fraternities at the religious level. This particularism is also expressed in urbanism. Houses are built on long, narrow plots. Important facades are decorated to highlight the uniqueness of the inhabitant of the house. The result is a vertical and varied city. The modern city looks very different. It corresponds to a society articulated around an important central power. Now, the objective is no longer to be different from one's neighbor. On the contrary, identical facades should highlight solidarity within the elite. The city becomes horizontal and uniform.

The confrontation between the old and the modern turns the Grand-Place into a real urban battlefield. The two main protagonists work for the governor, but they express completely opposite ideas. They are Guillaume De Bruyn, an architect, and Antoine Pastorana, a cabinetmaker.

De Bruyn best reflects the modern ideas of power. He conceives a global project for the Grand-Place, but few elements are implemented. The "Maison des Ducs du Brabant" (House of the Dukes of Brabant) is his major achievement. The entire eastern part of the Grand-Place is occupied by the facade of this complex with a misleading name. Indeed, the only link with the dukes are the busts that decorate the first floor. And it is not one, but 7 independent houses that hide behind a common facade. It is difficult to be more modern than that in 1700.

Antoine Pastorana is the best interpreter of corporate particularism. His most beautiful creation is 'le Cornet', the house of the boatmen. He makes a magnificent synthesis between his experience as a cabinetmaker and his mission as a master builder. The plot is too narrow for the high facade he wants to build, but he uses concave curves to give it a wider appearance. On the 2nd floor, the middle window is in a straight bay, but the side windows are integrated into concave bays. Pastorana gives free rein to his fancy in the gable, a stone copy of the wooden stern castle of a large boat from the end of the 17th century.

With its neighbors, the facade of the 'Cornet' is the antithesis of that of the 'Ducs du Brabant'. Here too, the governor dreams of a large complex. But the facades of 'la Brouette', 'le Sac', and 'la Louve' are already in stone and survive the bombing. Their owners plead for their preservation, and the governor cannot refuse that. Pastorana crowned 'le Sac', a mid-century facade, with a new gable. To the left of 'la Louve', 2 new facades were born: the 'Cornet' of the boatmen and 'Renard' of the haberdashers, a profession that brings together different retailers. These three last facades play "the game of not looking like the others."

It is regrettable that, in the touristic approach of the square, appearance takes such a prominent place over the underlying content. The eastern side of the square is an ode to central power, while the western side sings the glory of particularism. Through their exuberance, the facades on this side are the opposite of those facing them. Narrow and elevated, they showcase the particularity of each of them through a colorful diversity.

The first photos of the Grand-Place show a square without statues and gilding. Everything disappeared in the 18th century. The beautiful facades that we admire today are the result of a major restoration campaign at the end of the 19th century. This is paradoxical. No other city in this country has destroyed so much of its past (such as the vaulting of the Senne), but no city has ever invested as much in enhancing its central square. The reason is very simple. Just like the Catholic and conservative current, the liberal and secular current had to demonstrate that it too has a great past. This is exactly what Mayor Buls and the Brussels officials of the time did.

The facades of the current square are not always an exact reflection of the buildings after 1695. Sometimes, restorers lack information, as in the case of the "Roi d'Espagne". Sometimes, the original no longer corresponds to the ideas and needs of the 19th century. This is the case, for example, with the "Maison de l'Etoile" on the left of the Town Hall. The building was first demolished to allow for the widening of the street. Then, it was rebuilt with a ground floor colonnade and pedestrian gallery. The "Maison du Roi" is a (very beautiful) pastiche of the 19th century. The old building had a tumultuous history and was in poor condition. In the 17th century, Archduchess Isabelle had it decorated with a dedication to Our Lady of Peace, which did not please the liberal restorers of the 19th century. Therefore, the old building was replaced by a new one where all the religious decorative elements were replaced by political elements...

was the baker’s house, which you can tell by the statue of St. Aubert, patron of bakers, on the first floor. Other clues are the six statues on the balustrade representing the six ingredients of bread: energy, agriculture, wind, fire, water and prudence. Currently a restaurant, the building is named after king Charles II (1661-1700), ruler of the Spanish empire. On the second floor, his statue looks down on two slaves in chains, which refers to his triumphs.

belonged to the guild of the fat renderers who sold products like butter, cheese, sausages, oil and candles. The fronton features a statue of Saint Gilles, the patron of the fat renderers.

belonged to the woodworkers and coopers.

features a statue of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, who are being suckled by a wolf. The archer’s guild later bought the building and added some attributes to the facade. One of those decorations is the golden phoenix towering over the house, symbolizing the rebirth of the house after a devastating fire in 1690 .

 is covered by nautical symbols and the rooftop features a replica of a galleon’s stern, manned by a scaled horse. This guildhall belonged to the boatmen.

is the House of the Corporation of haberdashers. Look for the beautiful wooden statue of a fox above the entrance.

is the smallest, but oldest house on the Grand Place. It used to be inhabited by the amman, the representative of the king.

was the butchers’ guildhall, featuring a carved swan above the door. In 1847, communist ideology founder Karl Marx spent a lot of time here. Nowadays it has ironically become the Grand Place’s finest upmarket restaurant.

is the House of the Corporation of Brewers and is decorated with hop leaves. Its basement is converted into a brewery museum. Have a look at our checklist for beerlovers to find out more about this place.

and Le Mont Thabor (no. 12) were both private houses.

The entire east side of the square (no. 13 to 19) is taken up by the House of the Dukes of Brabant, which housed guildhalls of the carpet makers, tanners, cartwrights, sculptors, masons, stone-cutters and slate-cutters.

holds mainly private houses, apart from La Chaloupe d’Or (no. 24-25) and Le Pigeon (no. 26-27). The former was the House of the Corporation of Tailors, characterized by the rooftop statue of Saint Homobonus of Cremona, patron saint of tailors. The house next-doors was the property of the Corporation of Painters, which is where Victor Hugo stayed during his stay in Brussels.