Grand-Place / Grote Markt
| La Grand-Place, Brussels | |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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| Grand-Place (view from the southeast): left the town hall, right the Maison du Roi |
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| National territory: |
 Belgium
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| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | (ii) (iv) |
| Surface: | 1.48 ha |
| Buffer zone: | 20.93 ha |
| Reference No .: | 857 |
| UNESCO region : | Europe and North America |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 1998 (session 22) |
Grand-Place ( French for 'Big Square') or Grote Markt ( Dutch for 'Big Market') is the central square of the Belgian capital Brussels and one of its landmarks . With the Gothic Town Hall and its closed baroque facade front he is considered one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and was as an ensemble in the 1998 list of World Heritage of UNESCO added.
history
Originally the square was a boggy ground that could not be built on. Century were drained, while the first houses were built on the neighboring sandbanks. This can be seen in the old names of some houses. “Le Cornet” was once called “La Montagne / den Berg” and the house “L'Arbre d'Or” was called “La Colline / de Hille”. The “Rue de la Colline / Heuvelstraat”, which opens in the north-western corner, was also on a sandbank. The original name of the long wet place was "Nedermerct" (Nieder- / Untermarkt) and the surrounding houses were partly built on posts in the muddy ground. At that time the square was 1.20 meters lower than it is today.
Due to the proximity to the traders' quarter around the Nikolaikirche, the square was increasingly used as a marketplace and numerous traders and craftsmen settled there. It was not until the 12th century that the square developed into the center of the city and increasingly attracted guilds and corporations. With increasing economic success, the city also tried to achieve more independence and to free itself from ducal rule. As a sign of its economic power and its increasing self-confidence, the city built numerous public buildings and the town hall on Grand-Place from the 14th century. From the 16th century onwards, the two centers of power stood opposite each other: to the north the "Maison du Roi" as a symbol of ducal power and to the south the town hall.
During this time, the square was the site of political gatherings, court cases, cultural and religious festivals, but also a place of execution. Among other things, Henri Coes and Jean Van Eschen were the first Protestants to be burned there in 1523, and in 1568 the uprisings against Spanish rule under Philip II were put down with the beheading of the leaders Count Egmond and Count Hoorn on the Great Square.
On August 13 and 14, 1695, the square was almost completely destroyed by the shelling of French troops under Marshal Villeroy . Only the walls and towers of the town hall and the Maison du Roi / Broodhuis were still standing, all other buildings were in ruins.
architecture
Information about the place
Until its destruction in 1695, the square was a colorful mixture of the style of the 15th to 17th centuries, the rapid rebuilding in the following years gave it its closed baroque facade. The city council played an important role in this; it had all the designs for the new houses to be built presented to it and, with the will to create a uniform, representative cityscape, influenced the plans.
The dimensions of the rectangular square are 110 meters in length and 68 meters in width, only the southeast side is slightly offset so that there is no right angle at the southern corner. Seven narrow and irregularly laid streets, which do not cut through the facade, lead from it into the old town.
The square is dominated by the town hall with its mighty belfry and the Maison du Roi directly opposite, which on the one hand embodied urban power and on the other hand the royal Habsburg power. The place of execution was right in front of the Maison du Roi / Broodhuis , which also housed the royal court. The buildings on the square have been under monument protection since the end of the 20th century.
town hall
The town hall (French: Hôtel de Ville , nl. Het Stadhuis ) was built between 1401 and 1421 by Jacob van Tienen , a student of Jan van Osy . Initially, only today's left wing was built as an extension to an existing belfry and the town hall was not originally planned to be larger. But after the guilds had fought against the patrician families to participate in the city government and the building had become too small for the enlarged council, the second, shorter wing of the city hall was built from 1444 to 1448.
The 96-meter-high late Gothic belfry was designed by Jan van Ruysbroeck , the builder of Philip the Good . Between 1449 and 1455 the tower was built in place of the previous one. Its magnificent design should put the Belfry of Bruges in the shade. Above the height of the roof, the massive tower body is elegantly slimmed down into an octagonal lantern made of long-lane windows and an open rib construction. On its top there is a gilded statue of Archangel Michael fighting the dragon , the patron saint of the city of Brussels. The asymmetrical integration of the tower into the building is striking: if the left wing consists of ten axes, the right wing has only six.
The town hall building plays a central role for the Brabant Gothic and became the model for later town halls. With its richly windowed facade with splendid sculptural decoration, it refers to the town halls of Bruges, Oudenaarde and Leuven , but goes beyond that with the rich decor and above all with the tower. Today's sculptures are reproductions, the originals are in the city museum in the Maison du Roi / Broodhuis .
After the bombing, which did not completely destroy the town hall, the building was given its current appearance from 1706 to 1714. The building is adorned with numerous sculptures. After various waves of restoration, the interior of the town hall is dominated by neo-Gothic : the Maximilians-Saal with a tapestry depicting the life of Clovis , the splendid council hall, the also richly furnished ballroom and the wedding hall (formerly the courtroom) are worth seeing .
The Hôtel de Ville / Stadhuis not only housed the city's magistrate, but also the states (assembly of estates) of Brabant until 1795 . In 1830 the provisional government operated from here during the Belgian Revolution .
Sculptures over the portal
Sculptures on the left wing, 2nd floor
Sculptures on the left wing, enlargement
Sculptures to the left above the portal, 2nd floor
Maison du Roi or Broodhuis
The two very different names Broodhuis (Dutch for bread house ) and Maison du Roi (French for house of the king ) come from two different buildings with different functions. In Dutch, the name of a previous medieval building from the 13th century has been retained, a wooden building in which the town's bakers sold their bread. When the Duchy of Brabant fell to the Habsburgs , the house took on the ducal, later royal court and became the Maison du Roi . In 1515 it was replaced by a stone house. The place of execution was right in front of the building.
After the destruction in 1695 there were several follow-up buildings. The current building is in the neo-Gothic or neo-renaissance style, the facade is based on engravings from the period from 1515 to 1536 and is reminiscent of the town hall of Oudenaarde . In 1873 the city commissioned the architect Victor Jamaer to restore the facade; In 1896 the work was completed. In addition to the historical views, the architect also realized an originally planned archway and expanded the building with other typical replicas from the 16th century.
Today the Maison du Roi / Broodhuis houses the city museum, in which, among other things, original sculptures of the city hall from around 1400 are shown and the costumes of Manneken Pis are kept.
Guild houses
History, description
After the destruction by the French, the guild houses were rebuilt around 1698 in a splendid baroque style. In addition to the rich baroque decoration, the typical character of the square is largely shaped by the parcels, which are unusually narrow for a baroque building and which were based on the Gothic floor plans of the previous buildings. Due to the large number of houses (in addition to the dominant buildings of the town hall and the bread house and the seven streets, 37 buildings are lined up next to each other) the square appears very lively and varied.
The strongly structured facades with their rich sculptural decoration, the elaborately designed gables, with pilasters and balustrades are based on the Italian Baroque with some Flemish influences. The architects involved in the new building were Jan Cosijn, Pieter Herbosch, Antonio Pastorana, Cornelis van Nerven, Guillaume de Bruyn and Adolphe Samyn. In addition to the name of the respective guild, each house has a proper name. The house numbering starts at the north corner of the square to the left of Rue au Beurre in a counter-clockwise direction. Therefore, the numbering of the houses in the pictures below is always to be understood from right to left.
Probably the most beautiful houses No. 1 to 7 are located on the northwest side. On the southwest side, between Rue de la Tête d'Or and Rue Charles Buls, the town hall and houses No. 8 to 12 to the left. On the southeast side, between Rue de Chapeliers and Rue de la Colline, there are houses No. 13 to 19. On the northeast side, the Maison du Roi , which is located between Rue de Harengs and Rue Chair et Pain, is on the right-hand side of the houses No. 20 to 28 and on the left by houses No. 34 to 39.
No. 8 to 12
no. 1/2 to 7
34 to 39
No. 20 to 28
number 14 to 19,
house of the Dukes of Brabant
List of guild houses
| House no. | designation | Original use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Au Roi d'Espagne (To the King of Spain) | Guild of bakers |
| 2/3 | La Brouette (wheelbarrows) | Guild of fat makers (= grocers) |
| 4th | Le Sac (sack) | Guild of joiners, carpenters and coopers |
| 5 | La Louve (she-wolf) | Guild of Archers of Saint Sebastian |
| 6th | Le Cornet (Cornucopia) | Guild of river boatmen |
| 7th | Le Renard (fox) | Guild of the shopkeepers |
| 8th | L'Étoile (star) | Seat of the ducal judge |
| 9 | Cygne (swan) | Butcher's Guild |
| 10 | L'Arbre d'Or (Golden Tree) | Guild of Brewers (today Brewery Museum) |
| 11 | La Rose (Rose) | Private residence of the van der Rosen family |
| 12 | Le Mont Thabor (Mount Tabor) | Private home |
| 13 | La Renommée (fame) | Private home |
| 14-19 | Maisons des Ducs de Brabant | House of the Dukes of Brabant |
| 14th | Hermitage (Hermitage) | Seat of various guilds |
| 15th | La Fortune (Fortuna) | Guild of Tanners |
| 16 | Le Moulin à Vent (windmill) | Guild of Millers |
| 17th | Pot d'Étain (pewter pot) | Guild of carpenters and wagon builders |
| 18th | La Colline (hill) | Guild of stonemasons, bricklayers, sculptors, roofers |
| 19th | La Bourse (Stock Exchange) | Private house with commercial use |
| 20th | Le Cerf (Deer) | Private home |
| 21st | Joseph | Private home |
| 22nd | Anne | Private home |
| 23 | L´Ange (angel) | Forest Abbey Courtyard |
| 24/25 | La Chaloupe d´Or (Goldschaluppe) | Guild of Tailors |
| 26/27 | Le Pigeon (pigeon) | Guild of painters |
| 28 | La Chambrette de l'Amman (clerk's room) | Seat of the bailiff as the representative of the Duke of Brabant |
| 34 | Le Heaume (helmet) | Private home |
| 35 | Le Paon (Peacock) | Residential and trading house |
| 36 | Le Petit Renard (Little Fox) | Private home |
| 37 | Le Chêne (oak) | Private home |
| 38 | Sainte-Barbe (Saint Barbara) | Residential and trading house |
| 39 | L´Âne (donkey) | Private home |
More pictures
Dome House No. 1
Sculptures on house no. 1/2
Statue on house number 10
Gable of house No. 16/17
The place in the 21st century
The square is the city's biggest tourist attraction with numerous street cafes and hotels. In the evening, the facades are effectively illuminated. There is a flower market here on weekdays and the bird market on Sundays.
In July the so-called Ommegang ends here , a procession in historical costumes that has been taking place since the middle of the 14th century.
Every two years, a large carpet of flowers is spread out on the square.
There are also occasional large concerts on the square, for example André Rieu performed here in 2015.
Car-free was the place as "the world's most beautiful car park" referred only in 1971, after the English-speaking Brussels weekly magazine "The Bulletin" launched a petition, as well as by many of Brussels Jacques Brel was signed. However, the liberal mayor Lucien Cooremans rejected the petition, whereupon the magazine organized a "sit-down protest" in the form of a picnic, until after a few months the mayor relented and the square became car-free.
literature
- Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani , Markus Tubbesing , Harald R. Stühlinger: Atlas zum Städtebau , Munich, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7774-2966-3 , pp. 22–31.
- Achilles Stubbe: The big market in Brussels , Langewiesche, Königstein im Taunus 1953
- Martin Thomas, Michael Neumann-Adrian: Belgium - Luxembourg , Verlag CJ Bucher GmbH, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7658-1097-5 .
- Team of authors: Belgium , Verlag Karl Baedeker GmbH, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-87504-417-7
- Julie Galand: The Grand-Place of Brussels , Renaissance du Livre, Waterloo 2012, ISBN 978-2-507-05041-2 .
Web links
- The Great Square of Brussels , broadcast by SWR from the series Treasures of the World - Heritage of Humanity with video ( RealPlayer ; 14:53 min) and photo gallery
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Grand 'Place / Grote Markt (Great Square) in Brussels , article by Ferdinand Dupuis-Panther on Wissen.de
- Panoramic 360 ° photography of the Grand Place in Brussels
swell
- ^ Julie Galand: Zoom on the Grand-Place de Bruxelles . De Rouck Publishing Waterloo 2012, ISBN 978-2-507-05038-2
- ^ Team of authors: Belgium , Verlag Baedeker, Ostfildern 2004, pp. 176 to 179
- ^ André Rieu with a concert on the Great Market in Brussels, 2015 , www.youtube.com (28 seconds excerpt); accessed on April 16, 2020.
- ↑ Philippe Van Parijs : "Picnic the Streets!" Brussel Deze Week issue 1330 of Thursday 24 May 2012, page 14
Cultural heritage: Flemish beguinages (1998) | Boat lifts on the Belgian Canal du Center (1998) | Grote Markt / Grand 'Place in Brussels (1998) | Belfries in Belgium and France (1999) | Old Town of Bruges (2000) | Art Nouveau buildings by Victor Horta in Brussels (2000) | Neolithic flint mines near Spiennes (2000) | Notre Dame Cathedral in Tournai (2000) | Plantin-Moretus Museum (2005) | Palais Stoclet (2009) | Significant sites of Walloon mining (2012) | The architectural work of Le Corbusier : Maison Guiette (2016)
Natural heritage: Old beech forests and primeval beech forests of the Carpathian Mountains and other regions of Europe : Sonia Forest (2017)
Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 48 ″ N , 4 ° 21 ′ 8 ″ E