Place du Marché aux herbes (herbs market)

Located in the heart of Brussels, the Place du Marché aux Herbes (Market Square) was once home to spice stands, as its name suggests. Today, it is mainly home to a beautiful fountain and is surrounded by small, touristy shops and restaurants. Among other things, you can find the Chez Papy fries shop and a very pretty design store. This pedestrian square is a nice shortcut to get to the Grand Place.

This alleyway was built after the bombardment of Brussels in 1695. The doors leading to the Impasse des Cadeaux are integrated into a large Baroque-style building that occupies numbers 8-12 of Rue du Marché aux Herbes.

This building, called the "Maison de l'Ange," is dated 1700 by a cartouche located at the top of the facade ("MDCC"), but it received a new facing of orange bricks and Euville stone in 1946.

which was called "Impasse des Roses" before the decree of May 4, 1853, is a Brussels' alley that begins between numbers 66 and 68 of the Marché-aux-Herbes. It dates back to the 18th century.

According to the census of 1866, it still had 86 inhabitants, but almost a century later, in 1959, it had only one inhabitant, the locksmith-stove maker Rouzeeuw, father, and son.

Jean d'Osta reports the following anecdote about it, now inscribed in Brussels folklore: "In 1968, during the twinning of the Free Commune of the Îlot Sacré with the town of Clochemerle (Vaux-en-Beaujolais), a public urinal was solemnly inaugurated in Impasse Sainte-Pétronille by the Mayor of Clochemerle and the Brotherhood of the Dry Throat."