ESSA Brussels: City Hall

The Brussels City Hall sits right on its beautiful, historic city square which we crossed several times in search of tasty food. During our tour, we were taken through beautiful room after stunning room while our guide explained a little bit of his town’s history. The lavishly ornate, neoGothic and Neoclassical interiors spoke to Begium’s immense wealth and power during the time that this city hall was active and each delicate (and RIDICULOUSLY expensive) tapestry told a story. Throughout the compound, the archangel Micheal, the patron saint of Brussels, was depicted in bronze, marble, or precious wood slaying a surely allegorical Lucifer representing enemies of the state.

The town hall was built in three segments as they raced to outdo a neighboring town and claim the title of “capital of the Holy Roman Empire” for themselves. For that reason, the spire atop the building appears to be a little off-center. In the year 1695, Brussels was bombed nearly to complete destruction in a petty demonstration of power by King Louis XIV (as if we needed another reason to hate the French royalty) but the city hall was rebuilt. Many of the paintings and tapestries within tell this story as well as show Brussels as it was before the Cholera-ridden river was covered up. It stands as a miniature palimpsest of Belgian history.

This small but influential and proud nation continued to use this building as the center of its government until the last decade when a larger facility was built to accommodate its government. This is why I think we stopped here on our way through Brussels. Not only was it an obviously important civic building, but it also contained in its paintings and splintered walls the history of the nation as well as the indomitable spirit of its inhabitants. It became a symbol over its centuries of use and became an unavoidable part of the Belgian story and thus is an invaluable monument in preserving Brussels’s status as a cultural capital.