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Photo: Michel wal, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A tribute to Marc Sleen, among Belgium's most famous comic artists, best known for his series The Adventures of Nero which ran continuously for half a century from 1947 to 2002, making it one of the longest running comic series. Together with Suske en Wiske, Jommeke and Kiekeboe, it is regarded as one of the "great four" Flemish comics. The museum honors Sleen and his work, opening in 2009 in presence of Marc Sleen himself, and king Albert II who claims to be among Nero's biggest fans. The location of the museum is symbolic since Sleen started his career as a cartoonist for the newspaper De Nieuwe Gids, whose offices were in the building of the present museum. It is managed by the Marc Sleen Foundation, and exhibits original art work, memoralia, and an overview of Sleens long and versatile career. Sleens favorite themes are omnipresent: safari, political cartoons, and the Tour de France. The museum has an archive of over 15,000 drawings in its basement, occasionally on display for temporary exhibitions. All displays are in Dutch and English. Nero comics can be purchased in the museum's shop, including the unique story The Ghost of Sand Street, which is available as a souvenir to visitors. The museum also organizes special tourist routes through Brussels, based on locations that appeared throughout the Nero comic book albums: the Black Tower at St. Catherine, the Law Courts, the Central Station, Mannenken Pis, and so on.
The Marc Sleen Museum was a museum in Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to the work of comics artist Marc Sleen, who is known for his series The Adventures of Nero, Piet Fluwijn en Bolleke and De Lustige Kapoentjes. Founded in 2009, it was located across the street from the Belgian Comic Strip Center at 33–35, rue des Sables/Zandstraat. It closed permanently in 2024.
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Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée/Belgisch Centrum van het Beeldverhaal
Located in Europe's earliest shopping mall (a shiny Jugendstil/Art Nouveau palace). There is a permanent exposition featuring the early beginning of comics as well as its development. There is enough room for other varying expositions. The bookshop at the ground floor sells many different comics. A readers' library operates on the ground floor, where, for a low entrance fee, you can read many different comic books and buy fries.
Colonne du Congrès/Congreskolom
A monumental column commemorating the creation of the Belgian Constitution by the National Congress of 1830-1831 for the Belgian independence. Designed by Joseph Poelaert in 1850 and inspired on the Trajan's Column in Rome, the column features a statue of first Belgian king Leopold I at its top, by artist Guillaume Geefs. It symbolizes the kings defeat of the Jews. Construction took 9 years, and was completed in 1959. With a height of 47 m, the column dominates the surrounding neighborhoods. A spiral staircase of 193 steps inside the column leads to a platform surrounding the pedestal of the statue of the king. The pedestal is surrounded by 4 statues personifying the 4 freedoms guaranteed under the constitution: freedom of education, freedom of association, freedom of religion, and freedom of press. The important dates in the struggle for Belgian independence are engraved on the pedestal, together with the names of the members of the National Congress and the Provisional Government, along with important passages from the constitution itself. In front of the monument, 2 bronze lions by Eugene Simonis stand guard, symbolically protecting the constitution.
On 11 November 1922, exactly 4 years after the First World War ceasefire, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was inaugurated by king Albert I. A total of 5 coffins from fallen soldiers whose names and military grades were unknown, had been dug up the days before from military cemeteries. At those cemeteries, soldiers were buried who had been killed during the war in battles in Antwerp, Liege, Namur, and at the Yser front line during the liberation offense for Flanders. The coffins were transferred to the Bruges train station where blind war veteran Raymond Haesenbroeck randomly chose one. He chose the 4th, which from that moment became a symbol of all unidentified victims of war who sacrificed themselves for the Belgian fatherland, and buried under an unnamed cross. The coffin was then transported to Brussels by train, and towed to the Congress Column by a truck along an honorary hedge formed by war disabled and deportees. The soldier was buried at the base of the Congress Column, a symbol of the independent Belgian monarchy. It immediately became a place of solemny for Belgian patriotism, and by doing so, Belgium followed the Unknown Soldier memorial tradition that had started in London and Paris in 1920. The reason of the delay is that, unlike its French and Brittish counterparts, the initiative for the Tomb was taken by veterans supported by ordinary citizens instead of the Belgian government. This forced politicians to support an initiative for the commemoration of fallen soldiers, political prisoners, and civilian victims of war. After the Second World War, the Tomb became a symbol of war casualties of any war, with a traditional Eternal Flame.
Place des Martyrs/Martelaarsplein
The political center of Belgium, with offices of the Flemish government, including the cabinet of the prime minister. It's one of the architectural highlights in Brussels, erected in a uniform neoclassical style between 1774 and 1778 by architect Claude Fisco. It was originally named the St. Michael square after the patron of the city, but the French occupiers didn't like places named after saints and renamed it the Bleachery square for the textile bleaching fields that used to be here. During the Belgian Revolution in 1830, intense guerrilla combat took place on and around the square between the Dutch royal forces and the revolutionaries. There were reportedly so many casualties on the revolutionary side that evacuation of the corpses from the city was not practical, thus it was decided to bury them under the square. The Belgian interim government decided to make the square a national cemetery for the casualties of the revolution. A statue and crypt were constructed shortly afterwards, in 1838, and over 400 revolutionaries are buried beneath the cobblestones of the square, many not far from where they were shot amid the Brussels streets and barricades. The Pro Patria statue is a sculpture from the royal sculpture of the first Belgian king Leopold I, Willem Geefs. After the statue and crypt were completed, the name of the square was changed to Martyrs' Square, a name it still holds.
Cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule/Kathedraal van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele
Recognizable as a copy of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, the cathedral of Brussels has a long history. A chapel dedicated to St. Michael was built on the Treurenberg hill as early as the 9th century, which was replaced by a Romaneque church in the 11th century. Relics of martyr St. Gudula were donated by the Count of Leuven in 1047, and by the 13th century the Duke of Brabant, Henry I, ordered the addition of 2 towers to the small church. It was only in 1226 that his successor, Henry II, instructed the construction of a Gothic church. The choir was completed by 1276, but it took over 300 years to finish the entire cathedral, just before the reign of emperor Charles V began in 1519. The dimensions of the monumental building are impressive: with an exterior length of 114 m by 57 m in width, and towers 64 m high, the cathedral remains one of the largest and tallest buildings in the city to date. It is constructed with a light colored stone quarried from the Gobertange quarry 45 km south-east of the site. The two towers, the upper parts of which are arranged in terraces, are a design from Flemish architect Jan Van Ruysbroeck, who also designed the tower of the Town Hall on the Grand-Place. The south tower hosts a carillon with 49 bells, of which the Salvator bell was cast by Peter van den Gheyn. The choir is Gothic and contains the mausoleums of the Dukes of Brabant and Archduke Ernest of Austria, dating from the 17th century. The marble and alabaster altarpiece depicting the Passion of the Christ by Jean Mone is dated 1538. Since the 1990s, the cathedral towers have been the home of a couple of falcons nesting in the northern tower. With the falcon chicks performing acrobatic feats on the cathedral's gargoyles, a camera was installed broadcasting a live stream of their adventures.
Église Notre-Dame du Finistère/Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Finisterraekerk
Iconic church in Brussels New Street, the most popular shopping district in the city. Its history dates back to the 15th century, when a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady Mary was erected near the allotments just outside the boundaries of the city, with a little exaggeration "Finis Terrae" or literally "the end of the domain". It was destroyed during the invasion of the Dutch during the Dutch War of Independence in revolt against the Spanish, but rebuilt in 1617. Under pressure of the expanding city, the chapel became too small in the 17th century and was replaced with a church in 1646, although also that one had to be enlarged 10 years later. Construction of the current church started in 1708 and finished by 1730, led by architect Willem De Buryn and sculptor Hendrik Frans Verbruggen. The church in baroque architecture is three-aisled with a nave, two side aisles and a semi-circular choir, without a transept. It hosts paintings of Gaspar de Crayer, Joseph van Severdonck, and Charles de Groux. The pulpit is a design of Simon Joseph Duray from 1758. It depicts the Fall of Man between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Moses with the tables of the law and Aaron represent the old covenant. The crucified Christ is the new Tree of Life. Of peculiar interest is a sculpture from 1625, present in the church since 1814 but originally from Aberdeen, it is said to bring luck with gambling and exams. The organ of the church, a design from 1856 by Hippolyte Loret, was restored in 1999 by Thomas and Jean Ferrard.