Grand Place

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Grand Place

The Grote Markt (Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
) or Grand Place (French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
) is the central market square of Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
. It is surrounded by guild

Guild

File:Windsorguildhall.jpgA guild is an association of artisan in a particular trade. The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers....
houses, the city's Town Hall

Brussels Town Hall

The Town Hall of City of Brussels is a Gothic architecture building from the Middle Ages. It is located in the middle of the famous Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium....
, and the Bread House (Dutch: Broodhuis, French: Maison du Roi). The square is the most important tourist destination and most memorable landmark in Brussels next to the Atomium

Atomium

The Atomium is a monument built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by Andr? Waterkeyn, it is 102-metres tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a Crystal structure#Unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times....
and Manneken Pis

Manneken Pis

Manneken Pis , also known in French language as the petit Julien, is a very famous Brussels landmark. It is a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin....
.

Town Hall was constructed between 1402 and 1455. The original architect was probably Jacob van Thienen

Jacob van Thienen

Jacob van Thienen was a Flanders architect of the early 15th century . He is believed to have designed the spectacular Brussels Town Hall circa 1402....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Grote Markt (Dutch

Dutch language

French language

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
. It is surrounded by guild

Guild

File:Windsorguildhall.jpgA guild is an association of artisan in a particular trade. The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers....
houses, the city's Town Hall

Brussels Town Hall

Atomium

Manneken Pis

History

The Town Hall was constructed between 1402 and 1455. The original architect was probably Jacob van Thienen

Jacob van Thienen

Jacob van Thienen was a Flanders architect of the early 15th century . He is believed to have designed the spectacular Brussels Town Hall circa 1402....
. The gothic

Gothic architecture

Jan van Ruysbroek (architect)

Jan van Ruysbroeck was a Flanders architect of the early 15th century . His best known work was the belfry of the Brussels Town Hall . The Gothic architecture building, which stands in the city's Grand Place , is widely regarded as a masterpiece of medieval European secular architecture....
. At the top of the 97 meter (318 feet) tower stands a statue of St. Michael, the patron of Brussels.

In the 13th century the predecessor of the Bread House was a wooden building where bakers sold their bread in a covered market. Its Dutch name Broodhuis recalls this function. It was replaced in the 15th century by a stone building for the administration of the duke of Brabant

Duke of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was formally erected in 1183/1184. The title "Duke of Brabant" was created by the German Emperor Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor in favor of Henry I, Duke of Brabant, son of Godfrey III of Leuven ....
. When the duchy fell to the Habsburg

Habsburg

The House of Habsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known as supplying all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of Spanish Empire and the Austrian Empire....
s, the Maison du Duc (Duke's house) became the Maison du Roi (King's house), the latter being the current French name of the building. Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I of Spain, of the Spanish realms from 1516 until his abdication in 1556....
rebuilt the building in a late Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style during his reign in the 16th century, similar to its appearance today. In 1873, the city entrusted architect Victor Jamaer to restore the battered structure in neo-gothic style.

The Grand Place was first laid out after the construction of the town hall, at the centre of the city's commercial district. Neighbouring streets still reflect the area's origins, named after the sellers of butter, cheese, herring, coal and so on. The original Grand Place was a medley of buildings constructed between the 15th and 17th centuries in a variety of styles.

On August 13, 1695, a 70,000-strong French

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
army under Marshal François de Neufville, Duke of Villeroy began a bombardment of Brussels

Bombardment of Brussels

The bombardment of Brussels by French troops of King Louis XIV on August 13, 14 and 15, 1695 and the resulting fire were together the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels....
in an effort to draw the League of Augsburg's forces away from their siege on French-held Namur

Namur (city)

Namur is a city and Municipalities in Belgium in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the Provinces of Belgium of Namur and of the Walloon Region ....
in what is now southern Belgium. The French launched a massive bombardment of the mostly defenseless city centre with cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any tubular piece of artillery, that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile over a distance....
s and mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is a Muzzleloader indirect fire weapon that fires shell at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing Ballistics trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
s, setting it on fire and flattening the majority of the Grand Place and the surrounding city. Only the stone shell of the town hall and a few fragments of other buildings remained standing. That the town hall survived at all is ironic, as it was the principal target of the artillery fire.

The square was rebuilt in the following four years by the city's guild

Guild

File:Windsorguildhall.jpgA guild is an association of artisan in a particular trade. The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers....
s. Their efforts were regulated by the city councilors and the Governor of Brussels, who required that their plans be submitted to the authorities for their approval. This helped to deliver a remarkably harmonious layout for the rebuilt Grand Place, despite the ostensibly clashing combination of Gothic, Baroque

Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
and Louis XIV styles.

The Grand Place was named by UNESCO

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
as a World Heritage Site

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 Sovereign state which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term....
in 1998. One of the houses was owned by the brewers'

Brewing

Brewing is the production of alcoholic beverages and alcohol fuel through fermentation . The term is used for the production of beer, although the word "brewing" is also used to describe the fermentation process used to create wine and mead....
guild, and is now the home of a brewers' museum.

Flower carpet

The Grand Place is well known for its large "flower carpet". This display of begonias is arranged on the square every two years for a few days in the middle of August, and attracts many tourists.

In popular culture

The square is a pilgrimage site for fans of the cult BBC television series Secret Army
Secret Army (TV series)

Secret Army is a television drama series made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT created by Gerard Glaister. The series chronicled the history of a Belgium resistance movement during the World War II dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the Luftwaffe, back to their home country....
, the second and third series of which were filmed here in 1978 and 1979, specifically around the building that is now Maxim's
Maxim's

Maxim's refers to several commercial enterprises:*Maxim's Paris - a restaurant and brand owned by Pierre Cardin*Maxim's Catering - a restaurant and bakery chain based in Hong Kong...
restaurant.
In Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad was a Polish novelist, writing in English. Many critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in the English language, despite his not having learned to speak English fluently until he was in his twenties ....
's Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Poland writer Joseph Conrad. Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine....
, the protagonist, Marlow, refers to the Grand Place as a "white sepulchre."

External links

Official site of the flower carpet