Kings House in La Grand-Place
The Grand-Place is one of the most beautiful squares I have ever been to. Granted that I haven’t really been to too many of them. Online community seems to agree with me. The Grand-Place is considered one of the most beautiful in the world. Considering that Europe has a lot of these large and beautiful squares, it is really an honor to be named as such. The primary reason for its beauty it that the harmony of the buildings which were built here. It is really a testament to the planners to be able to enforce the design of a square of such scale and elegance. Most of the structures around the square were guildhalls and of course the most prominent one is the town hall itself.
Elegant King’s House at La Grand-Place in Brussels City Center
The town hall became a symbol of municipal power. Probably in some sort of rivalry, the Duke of Brabant built a building right across the town hall as a symbol of his power. This became known as the King’s House. Curiously enough, no king ever lived here. The setup of the square is really quite different. There is only the municipal building and then there are buildings of different corporations. Since this is old Europe, you might have expected to have a massive church right here but there wasn’t any. This probably makes the Grand-Place unique in this aspect. The building was built on the site of the old breadhouse thus it still holds the name in Dutch. It currently houses the Museum of the City of Brussels.
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