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Photo: Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Poelaert Square, named after the architect of the adjacent Palace of Justice, is the largest square in Brussels and provides the best view point over the city. On the border between the upper and lower city, the square is on Gallows Hill (Galgenberg), where in Medieval Brussels convicts were executed on the gallows. Famously, anatomist Andreas Vesalius frequented Gallows Hill to collect corpses of executed convicts for his anatomical research. When the weather is clear, Poelaert square offers a view over the north-western part of the city, including the city hall, the Koekelberg basilica, and the Atomium. A free elevator connects Poelaert square with the Marollen quarter of the lower city.
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Palais de Justice/Justitiepaleis
Built between 1866 and 1883 in eclectic style by celebrated architect Joseph Poelaert, the Courts are the most important of their kind in Belgium. The total cost of the construction, land and furnishings was 45 million Belgian Francs, or 1.1 million euro. A notable landmark in Brussels, it is said to be the largest building constructed in the 19th century, and larger than the St. Peter's basilica in Rome: it is 160 m by 150 m, with a total build surface of 26.000 m². The 104 m high dome weighs 24.000 tons. The building has 8 courtyards with a surface of 6.000 m², 27 large court rooms and 245 smaller court rooms. Its conception started in 1860, when Belgium was only 30 years old, during the reign of King Leopold I who announced the building of the courts with a royal decree, followed by an international architectural contest for its design. All entered designs were found to be unacceptable and rejected however, and then minister of justice Victor Tesch appointed Joseph Poelaert as the designer. Poelaert died in 1879, four years before the building was finally completed. For its construction, a section of the Marollen neighborhood had to be demolished, leading to the expropriation and forced relocation of hundreds of inhabitants. As a result, the word architect became one of the most serious insults in Brussels! Ironically, Poelaert himself lived in a house only a few hundred meters away of the construction site, in the Marollen. The location of the courts is symbolic, being the hill where convicted criminals were hanged during the Middle Ages. The building includes many interior statues by sculptor Pierre Armand Cattier, and figures of Roman jurists Cicero and Ulpian, by Antoine-Félix Bouré. According to a story, Adolf Hitler was so fond of the building that he dispatched Albert Speer to study it in 1940. Events turned out unfavorably however, and at the end of the Second World War, the retreating Germans started a fire in the courts in an attempt to destroy them, leading to the collapse of the cupola and heavily damaging other parts of the building. By 1947 most of the damage was repaired, and the cupola rebuilt 2.5 meters higher than the original. In 2003 a new series of renovations have begun, aiming to strengthen the roof structure and walls, and applying a new layer on the gilded cupola. Because of financial problems the renovation works are progressing slowly, however, and in 2013 it was determined that the decade-old scaffolding was, ironically, in need of renovation itself because it had started to rust and became unsafe.
Musée Juif de Belgique/Joods Museum van België
Dedicated to the craft, folk art, culture and religion of the Jewish people in Belgium.
Église Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon/Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Zege op de Zavelkerk
The history of this Roman Catholic church dates back to the early 13th century when Henry I, Duke of Brabant, recognized the Noble Serment of Crossbowmen as a guild, thereby granting them privileges and allowing them to build a small chapel on a plot of land just outside the city walls, then known as the Zavel after the structure of the sand. It became known as the chapel of the Crossbow Guild. According to the legend, a local devout named Beatrijs Soetkens, had a vision in which the Virgin Mary instructed her to steal a statue from the cathedral of Antwerp, bring it to Brussels, and place it in the chapel of the Crossbow Guild. Through some miraculous events she managed to bring the statue to Brussels by boat in 1348, and venerated as the patron of the Guild. From then on, they held an annual procession through the city, called the Ommegang, which grew into an important religious event. The construction of the current church, which replaced the chapel, started in the 15th century and lasted almost a century. The choir was finished in 1435, as testified by mural paintings of that date. In the 16th century the church was sacked by Calvinists, and the statue brought by Beatrijs Soetkens was destroyed. After demolition of the city walls and completion of the Regentschapsstraat in 1872, numerous buildings constructed adjacent to the church were torn down, and the construction turned out to be heavily dilapidated. Renovations were carried out immediately, and the church was restored to its former glory. With its 24 m width and 65 m height, it remains one of the most important gothic brabantine churches in Belgium.
Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Chapelle/Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Kapellekerk
One of the most famous Gothic Catholic churches in Brussels, it derives its name from a chapel outside the city walls founded by the duke of Brabant in 1134. It started as a church in roman-gothic style in 1250, followed by a gothic choir a quarter century later. Destroyed by a fire in 1405, the church was rebuilt in a Brabantian Gothic style between 1421 and 1483, with the exception of the west tower. Shortly after the French assault of 1695, the tower was completed in its characteristic baroque style, a design of masonry expert Antoon Pastorana. The interior of the church is decorated with many engravings and sculptures, including work of Hiëronymus Duquesnoy de Jonge and Lucas Faydherbe. The church also serves as a tomb for Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel de Oude, one of the Flemish Masters, who was buried here in 1569.
Palais d'Egmont/Egmontpaleis
MEM
A small museum dedicated to the history of erotic art from antiquity until today. It is a private collection, one of the most attractive in Europe, housed in an 18th century house near the Sablon. On display are paintings, sculptures, Greco-roman antiquities, ivory, Japanese prints and other curiosities. The purpose of the museum is to show the existence of eroticism since the discovery of sexual pleasure by humankind. The museum is an initiative by Guy Martens in 2012, and a result of his life long passion for erotic art. The collection covers over 800 different pieces.