Town Hall at La Grand-Place

I was absolutely delighted with the Grand-Place in Brussels city center. I was dreaming of being able to visit a “European-looking” city and I got my wish. The buildings at the Brussels city center are definitely very charming. The La Grand-Place is a large square in the Brussels city center and it one of the most important places in the city. There used to be a markets here but I don’t see them at least on the times which I visited. There weren’t any permanent structures in the square though, so it might be something that gets torn down easily. I think I have seen these kinds of temporary markets in Rome and it is not too far fetched to imagine it happening here as well.

The most prominent structure here at the Grand-Place is definitely the belfry of the town hall. I was under the impression that it was the royal palace but it was just the town hall. Belgium seems to have a thing about belfries and they can been seen a lot of the towns which are old enough. It symbolizes the winning of civil liberties of these towns. It seems to be a Belgian and French thing since you would be able to see these belfries all over these two countries. A lot of these belfries are also part of the Belfries of Belgium and France UNESCO World Heritage. Curiously enough, the town hall belfry at La Grand-Place is not in the list of Belfries of Belgium and France since it is already part of the La Grand-Place UNESCO World Heritage listing. It seems this would be a common occurrence here in Belgium where a place would be part of two UNESCO World Heritage sites.

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