Fortifications of Brussels

The first walls of Brussels (, ) were a series of fortifications erected around Brussels in the early 13th century. The city quickly outgrew them, and starting in 1356, a second, larger set of walls was built to better enclose and defend the city. The now superfluous walls were dismantled between the 16th and 18th centuries. Isolated portions of the first walls can still be seen today. Construction Construction of the first walls of Brussels is estimated to have taken place at the beginning of the 13th century, during the reign of Henry I, the first duke of Brabant. The beginning and end dates are not clear, but construction would have lasted several decades. On the other hand, from historical maps and other documents which have been preserved, the precise former course of the walls is known. The walls were long. In the west, they encompassed Saint-Géry/Sint-Goriks Island (the site of the city's founding and first development, where today's Halles Saint-Géry/Sint-Gorikshallen are located), the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (the city's main square), and the first port on the river Senne. They extended to the heights in the east of the city, enclosing the first Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula (then a collegiate church) on the Treurenberg hill (; "Mount of tears"), where the St. Gudula Gate stood (integrated in these first walls), and which was later used as a notorious prison, hence its name, as well as the ducal palace of Coudenberg. The city walls offered relatively little protection. During the night of 24 October 1356, a group of Brabantian patriots led by Everard t'Serclaes scaled the city walls and drove the Flemings from the city. This enabled Joanna and Wenceslaus to make their Joyous Entry into Brussels, granting a charter of liberties that would be seen as the equivalent of the Magna Carta for the Low Countries. New walls proposed Since the construction of the first walls in the 13th century, Brussels had grown extensively and had become quite important. On account of this growth, the first walls were no longer large enough, as the city had begun to spread out beyond them. It had become clear that further defences, better adapted to the current era, needed to be constructed. Following the succession crisis, city authorities decided to build a new set of walls. Everard 't Serclaes, who had been named schepen (alderman), was among those contributing to the decision. ==Second walls==

The second walls of Brussels (, ) were erected between 1356 and 1383. The wall was to have a length of nearly 8 km (5 mi), which was enough to enclose the surrounding hamlets and fields that supplied the city. There were to be 72 semicircular towers along the wall. There were seven main gates, corresponding to the seven entries into the first walls of Brussels, but the similarities mostly end there. The second walls were a monumental project and represented a colossal undertaking for the period. The design was fairly typical of medieval defences before the introduction of gunpowder, and was surrounded by a moat in the lower parts of the city. The two sets of walls coexisted until the 16th century, when the original set of walls began to be dismantled. File:Brussel.1610.a.jpg|An engraving of Brussels showing the city's second walls, File:Wenceslas Hollar - Brussels (State 1).jpg|17th-century engraving of Brussels' second walls, by Wenceslas Hollar File:Jan Baptist Bonnecroy - Vue de Bruxelles.jpg|Panoramic view of Brussels and its walls in the 17th century, by Jan Baptist Bonnecroy Evolution of defences . The white areas in the centre are the areas destroyed. Monterrey Fort is visible on the right. North is roughly to the bottom-left. In the 16th century, there were seven gates: Laeken, Flanders, Anderlecht, Halle, Namur, Leuven and Schaerbeek, each named for the direction of the road leading out of the gate. An eighth was added in 1561, the Shore Gate (, ), designed to control access to the Port of Brussels from the newly constructed Willebroek Canal. In the 16th and 17th centuries, new siege weapons and techniques, including the advent of artillery, forced the city to modernise the defences in order to keep potential attackers at a safe distance from the walls, including the addition of ditches, bastions and ravelins. The was the most important defensive work, its name coming from the Spanish count responsible for modernising the defences. The fort was built between 1672 and 1675, by the military engineers Merex and Blom, on the heights of Obbrussel (, for "Upper Brussels", now Saint-Gilles), south of the Halle Gate. The dismantling work of the exterior defences began in the east of the city. The Fort of Monterey was sold and destroyed, and all of the Gates were razed with the exception of the Laeken Gate and the Halle Gate. In 1795, when Republican France invaded and annexed the Low Countries, the demolitions were stopped, not resuming until an order from Napoleon in 1804. The Laeken Gate was demolished in 1808. By an ordinance on 19 May 1810, the French Emperor ordered the second walls demolished and replaced by boulevards with a median in the centre. The fall of the First French Empire prevented the project's immediate execution. ==Construction of the Small Ring==

and the Anderlecht Gate With the return of stability, in 1818, authorities organised a contest for plans to demolish the ramparts and replace them with boulevards suited to the exigencies of contemporary life in the city. The proposal of Jean-Baptiste Vifquain was ultimately chosen. It involved construction of squares and boulevards, with spaces to walk and two to four rows of trees lining the route, a main road and parallel side roads. A barrier with a ditch running its length was still installed, however, and octroi pavilions () built at the entrances, to allow continued taxation of commercial goods entering the city. The extension of the canal to the west of the city was also envisioned, but that would not be effected until the construction of the Brussels–Charleroi Canal around 1830. The work was to be financed by selling the land that was freed up, although this took over twenty years to do. In 1830, as Belgium gained its independence, demolition work had reached the Halle Gate. Since its closing, it had served as a military prison, and later as storage of archives. The new government decided to spare it. In 1840, the street just inside of the gate was raised , making it impassable to vehicles. From 1868 to 1871, as the city was being modernised, the architect Henri Beyaert, with little regard for historical accuracy, transformed the austere medieval tower into something of a neo-Gothic castle, which fit better with the contemporary romantic perception of the Middle Ages. In 1860, the taxes on commercial goods were lifted, and the last barrier between Brussels and its suburbs was destroyed. The intersections at the Anderlecht Gate and the Ninove Gate are the only two where the octroi pavilions still stand. Those of the Namur Gate were moved, and now stand at the end of the Avenue Louise/Louizalaan, at the entrance to the Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos. Although modified, the Halle Gate is the last remnant of the second walls of Brussels. Their course can be seen by the current Small Ring, although it stops short of the Halle Gate, and they still define downtown Brussels, often called the Pentagon. In the 1950s, with pressure from the automobile, new plans to improve traffic flow were implemented, partly due to the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). Later, tunnels were dug, and one of the main lines of the Brussels Metro now runs primarily underneath the Small Ring. Nowadays, the Small Ring is a major arterial ring road. ==Gallery==

First walls File:Tour Noir.JPG| File:Bruxelles tour Anneessens 2.jpg| File:Tour Anneessens in Brussels (DSCF4256).jpg| File:1er enceinte Tour de Villers Bxl.JPG| Second walls File:Porte de Hall Hallepoort 2011 Brussels-side2.jpg| File:Porte Anderlecht.jpg| File:Porte Flandre.jpg| File:Porte de Schaerbeek.JPG| File:Porte Namur.jpg| Octroi pavilions File:Octroi porte de Ninove Bxl 01.JPG|The former octroi pavilions of the Ninove Gate, at the / File:Octroi porte d'Anderlecht Bxl 01.jpg| File:Anciens pavillons d'octroi de la Porte de Namur 01.JPG| ==See also==

• La Première Enceinte de Bruxelles, Corinne Licoppe (ed.), no. 29 in the series ''Bruxelles, Ville d'Art et d'Histoire'', Ministère de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Service des Monuments et Sites, 2001 • ''La Porte de Hal - Temoin silencieux d'une histoire tumultueuse'', Linda Wullus, Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, 2006 ==External links==