Brussels Town Hall

Gothic Town Hall The Town Hall (, ) of the City of Brussels was erected in stages, between 1401 and 1455, on the south side of the Grand-Place/Grote Markt, transforming the square into the seat of municipal power. Due to the square's tumultuous history (see details below), it is also its only remaining medieval building. The oldest part of the present building is its east wing (to the left when facing the front). This wing, together with a shorter tower, was built between 1401 and 1421. The architect and designer is probably Jacob van Thienen with whom Jean Bornoy collaborated. Initially, future expansion of the building was not foreseen; however, the admission of the craft guilds into the traditionally patrician city government apparently spurred interest in providing more room for the building. As a result, a second, somewhat longer wing was built onto the existing structure, with the young Duke Charles the Bold laying its first stone in 1444. The architect of this west wing is unknown. Historians think that it could be Guillaume (Willem) de Voghel, who was the architect of the City of Brussels in 1452, and who was also, at that time, the designer of the Aula Magna at the Palace of Coudenberg. , The tower in Brabantine Gothic style is the work of Jan van Ruysbroek, the court architect of Philip the Good. By 1455, this tower, replacing the older one, was complete. Above the Town Hall's roof, the square tower narrows to a lavishly pinnacled octagonal openwork. At its summit stands a gilt metal statue of Saint Michael, the patron saint of the City of Brussels, slaying a dragon or demon. The tower, its front archway, and the main building's façade are conspicuously off-centre relative to one another. According to a legend, the architect of the building, upon discovering this "error", leapt to his death from the tower. More likely, the asymmetry of the Town Hall was an accepted consequence of the scattered construction history and space constraints. Destruction and rebuilding in 1695 On 13 August 1695, during the Nine Years' War, a 70,000-strong French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy, began a bombardment of Brussels in an effort to draw the League of Augsburg's forces away from their siege on French-held Namur in what is now Wallonia. The French launched a massive bombardment of the mostly defenceless city centre with cannons and mortars, setting it on fire and flattening the majority of the Grand-Place and the surrounding city. The resulting fire completely gutted the Town Hall, destroying the building's archives and art collections, including paintings by Rogier van der Weyden. Only the stone shell of the building remained standing. That it survived at all is ironic, as it was the principal target of the artillery fire. L-shape (grey) and the classicist extension (pink) After the bombardment, the municipal government funded the Town Hall's repairs by selling houses and land. The interior was soon rebuilt and enlarged by the architect-sculptor , who added three rear wings in the Louis XIV style over the ruins of the former inner cloth market (), from 1706 to 1717, transforming the L-shaped building into its present configuration: a quadrilateral with an inner courtyard. Until 1795, these wings housed the States of Brabant, the representation of the three estates (nobility, clergy and commoners) to the court of the Duke of Brabant. 19th-century restorations The Town Hall underwent several restoration campaigns throughout the 19th century, beginning in 1840 under the direction of the architect Tilman-François Suys. The interior was later revised by the architect from 1860, in the style of his mentor Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Jamaer was the City of Brussels' architect and also reconstructed the King's House. The interior is now dominated by neo-Gothic: the Maximilian Room, the States of Brabant Room and their antechamber with tapestries depicting the life of Clovis, the splendid Municipal Council Room, the likewise richly furnished ballroom and the Wedding Room (formerly the courtroom). It was also at this time that most of the Town Hall's statues were made. Indeed, before then, the Town Hall was not adorned as it is today with countless statues, except for corbels, representations of eight prophets above the portal, and a few statues located at the corner turrets. Jamaer reworked the façade by adding non-existent niches, as well as a gallery and a new portal. Between 1844 and 1902, nearly three hundred statues in Caen and , created by famous artists, including Charles Geefs, Charles-Auguste Fraikin, Eugène Simonis and George Minne, were executed. The interior rooms were replenished with tapestries, paintings, and sculptures, largely representing subjects of importance in local and regional history, such as a monumental bronze statue of Saint Michael created by Charles van der Stappen in the entrance. Contemporary history The Town Hall not only housed the city's magistrate, but also the States of Brabant until 1795. In 1830, the provisional government operated from there during the Belgian Revolution, which led to the separation of the Southern Netherlands from the Northern Netherlands, resulting in the formation of Belgium as it is known today. At the start of World War I, as refugees flooded Brussels, the Town Hall served as a makeshift hospital. On 20 August 1914, the occupying German army arrived at the Grand-Place and hoisted a German flag at the left side of the Town Hall. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, as part of the Grand-Place's registration. ==Architecture==