A walkabout amid signifiers A literary and artistic walk around Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Sneeuw quarter Eric Min www.vlaamsparlement.be A walkabout amid signifiers A literary and artistic walk around Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Sneeuw quarter Eric Min Preface Dear visitor, What was once home to washerwomen and labourers, Today, writer and Brussels expert Eric Min takes you models and artists, self-assured citizens and drinkers out on a literary and artistic stroll around this colourful of absinthe is now a gathering ground for members quarter. Enjoy what promises to be a fun journey of dis- of parliament and other politicians at and around covery off the beaten track. Vrijheids plein (Freedom Square). The ancient Onze- Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Sneeuw (Our Lady Mary in the Snow) quarter, where our Parliament has its home base, is a Jan Peumans piece of Brussels that comes with a rich and evoca- Speaker of the Flemish Parliament tive history. Part of this history is lost, and is known to us only through the accounts and testimonials of people who lived at the time. Another piece of this history remains clearly discernible in the road pattern and streetscape. 3 Liefdadigheidsstraat E 15 N S 14 W Kunstlaan entla Madou Reg an Vlaams Kunstlaan Eredienststr. Parlement Wetstraat De Loketten Noordstraat Barricaden 9 plein Omwentelingstr. Hertogsstraat 10 8 0 Drukpersstraat Kruidtuinlaan Zavelput Vrijheids- 7 Verenigingstraat plein 3 2 4 5 Tribunestr. Warandepark Onderrichtsstr. 13 6 IJzerenkruisstraat Voorl. Bewindstr. Congresstraat 1 11 Staatsbladstr. Koningsstraat12 Leuvenseweg Pachecolaan Wetstraat . r Jonkerstr. t s Treurenberg n ë i n o l o K Liefdadigheidsstraat 15 14 Kunstlaan clamouring for ’ce cloaque’ – ‘dit Regentlaan Madou No, it is not Paris – but it could just as well have been. In the city afzichte lijke darmkanaal’ (this un- Vlaams Kunstlaan Eredienststr. Parlement quarter between Warandepark (Warande Park), Koningsstraat (King sightly cloaca/cesspool) – to be Wetstraat Street) and the wide city boulevards, everything exudes metropolitan razed to the ground and to be re- De Loketten grandeur. Here is where you will find the best possible panoramic built as an elegant middle class Noordstraat Barricaden vista : in the middle of the nineteenth century, monumental views quarter. 9 plein and public buildings lent shape to a brand new quarter. In the narrow Omwentelingstr. Hertogsstraat 10 8 0 streets of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Sneeuw, everything was going to be The monumental city history titled different. Or : how urbanism, symbolism and a bizarre fondness of Bruxelles à travers les ages quali- Drukpersstraat chinoiseries left their mark on the city and its literature. fies the quarter as a refuge for ‘Ital- Kruidtuinlaan Zavelput Vrijheids- ians, accordeonists, organ grinders 7 Verenigingstraat plein 3 and artists’ models that posed in 2 4 Same as in Paris, which was devel- seen in Paris. The hub around the numerous painters’ workshops’. 5 oped by city planner baron Hauss- which the new boulevards orbited Hardly complimentary. It was not Tribunestr. Warandepark Onderrichtsstr. 13 mann, the wrecking balls were not was the new Stock Exchange Build- until 1874 when a public limited 6 IJzerenkruisstraat Voorl. Bewindstr. sitting idle in Brussels either. In the ing located at the epon ymous Beurs- company tackled the urban blight Congresstraat 1 11 nineteenth century, every self-re- plein (Stock Exchange Square), and pushed through the first expro- Staatsbladstr. specting metropolis was a city which was meant to become the priations. In the back garden of the under constant development. When throbbing heart of the city. Parliament building, six hundred Koningsstraat12 the river Zenne was covered be- But it was not just the city centre unstable properties were demol- Leuvenseweg Pachecolaan Wetstraat tween 1867 and 1871, houses, alleys which was radically redeveloped. ished – the residents of these prop- and bridges were knocked down ; The dilapidated Onze-Lieve-Vrouw- erties had to find homes elsewhere. forty thousand local residents were ter-Sneeuw quarter between Warande Up until that time, labourers, wash- forced to move away to the sprawl- and Kruidtuin (Botanical Garden) erwomen, lace workers, prostitutes . r ing suburbs, their homes replaced was also sanitised. As early as 1861, and artists would hang out in the Jonkerstr. t s Treurenberg n by boulevards modelled after those voices in the Senate were heard quarter’s winding alleys where doz- ë i n o l o K 5 ens of ginguittes (dance halls) and spelling of Our Lady Mary in the culs-de-sac, over ten thousand resi- cabarets peddled cheap thrills. Now- Snow) is covered up with the cloak dents were chased away from their adays, the shabby quarter around of charity and luxury. slums using strong arm tactics. the old chapel devoted to Ons Liv- Newfangled town planning grids From this time forward, around the row ter Sneeuw (the old Flemish were laid out across some twenty brand new Place de la Liberté (Liber- ty Square) streets were seen to fan out, carrying the names of the con- stitutional freedoms proudly chis- elled in stone : (freedom of (the)) Pers (press), Onderricht (education), Ver - eniging (association), Erediensten (worship). Other street names around the quarter too were plucked from the annals of parliamentary democ- racy, referencing Parlement (Parlia- ment), Voorlopig Bewind (Provi- sional Government of Belgium) and Staatsblad (Belgian Official Gazette). Barricadenplein (Barricade Square) kept the memory of the Belgian revolution of 1830 alive. The transformation of the Onze- Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Sneeuw quarter is an apt example of the nineteenth century’s zest for action and bour- The Hôtel and Bank Empain in Congresstraat geois pride. If it is decrepit, it needs Building a modern city quarter is high townhouses, appartments, ele- to make way for Progress – a con- not just an intervention in the phys- gant shops, …) cept still spelt with a capital P at ical space but also an ideological One of the main principles in design- the time. The values of the fledgling op er ation. The construction site was ing this new section of Brussels was nation were eminently suited to be meant to embody all the principles the view, the distant view. This ‘pan- reflected in stone and cast iron, all citizens believed to be important : oramic gaze’ of the citizen is the key the more so as - en route to the new measure and order, perspective and concept of the prevailing views and society - city planners, engineers legibility, and good taste. actions. The modern city was not and artists were perfect allies of the only born out of money, but equally world of politics. Philosophical principles and politi- out of the urge to see far and wide. cal values were reflected in the road pattern, the materials used Place des Panoramas Our walk starts out at De Loketten (The Counters) 0 , the and the intended purposes of the former counter room of the Postcheques (Postal Cheques, a properties. Houses, blocks of flats Looking down onto the lower quar- division of the Belgian Royal Mail) which is now home to and public buildings were used to ters of the city of Brussels today the Flemish Parliament’s visitor centre. The modernistic lend shape to the quarter as a resi- and at the line of the horizon in the building, commissioned by De Post (the Royal Mail) and de- dential location where citizens and distance from behind Leopold I’s signed by architect Victor Bourgeois (1897-1962) was built office workers would be able to live back, perched atop his Congress between 1937 and 1946. As we step outside De Loketten, we and relax in comfort. In 1905, the Column 1 , few modern-day visi- head left into IJzerenkruisstraat (Iron Cross Street), before Baedeker tourist guide described tors would ever suspect that, over a making our way via Drukpersstraat (Printing Press Street) the quarter in the back garden of century ago, this place was a fa- to Congresstraat (Congress Street), which we walk all the Koningsstraat as a ‘quartier riche’. vourite spot to enjoy the view as way down until we reach the Congreskolom (Congress Col- Bruxelles à travers les âges too part of a leisurely stroll umn), where we get to enjoy the view looking out across the seems to have taken a shining to lower town. the quarter : ‘a small modern town Back in the day, the current Congres- has been built here, with rented plein (Congress Square) was called 7 la Place des Panoramas, every bit centre at one’s feet. All it took was a as apt as it was unilingual. At the ride up to Panoramaplein by horse- top of the majestic steps which de- drawn carriage. scended towards Pachecolaan (Pa- checo Boulevard), an actual obser- Here is what Herman Teirlinck vation point had been been put up (1879-1967) had to say ‘in the shad- circa 1850. Today, little is left of the ow of the unfriendly Congress Col- charm of old as a result of the con- umn, in itself ample synthesis of struction of the city’s administra- what the bad taste of the artists of tive centre, the car park and the the 1830s was capable of’, in a guide pertaining terrace – a mammoth for visitors to the 1910 World Exhi- 225,000 square metres - between bition held in Brussels : 1958 and 1983. From a small public garden, citizens were able to gaze ‘Delightful is this panorama over- across the city of a Sunday, as looking the Lower Town … The though looking at a painted back- Lower Town lying there, roaring drop at the theatre. and steaming. Here you sense, feel the eagerness and frantic liveliness Gazing was a favourite pastime for and bustle, which you touched yes- those who had money and time to terday.