The Town Hall (, ; , ) of the City of Brussels is a landmark building and the former seat of that municipality of Brussels, Belgium. It is located on the south side of the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (Brussels' main square), opposite the King's House or Bread House building, housing the Brussels City Museum.
Erected in stages between 1401 and 1455, the Town Hall is the only surviving medieval building on the Grand-Place and forms the square's architectural centrepiece. With its richly ornamented façade and tower, it is considered a masterpiece of civil Gothic architecture, and more specifically, of Brabantine Gothic. Its three classicist rear wings date from the 18th century.
Following the relocation of the mayor, aldermen and municipal administration to the building in 2023, the Town Hall has primarily served a ceremonial and tourist function. Since 1998, it has also been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the square.
History
Gothic Town Hall The Town Hall (, ) of the City of Brussels was erected in stages, between 1401 and 1455, on the south side of the Grand-Place/Grote Markt, transforming the square into the seat of municipal power. Due to the square's tumultuous history (see details below), it is also its only surviving medieval building.
The oldest part of the present building is its east wing (to the left when facing the front). This wing, together with a shorter tower, was built between 1401 and 1421. The architect and designer is probably Jacob van Thienen with whom Jean Bornoy collaborated. Initially, future expansion of the building was not foreseen; however, the admission of the craft guilds into the traditionally patrician city government apparently spurred interest in providing more room for the building. As a result, a second, somewhat longer wing was built onto the existing structure, with the young Duke Charles the Bold laying its first stone in 1444. The architect of this west wing is unknown. Historians think that it could be Guillaume (Willem) de Voghel, who was the architect of the City of Brussels in 1452, and who was also, at that time, the designer of the Aula Magna at the Palace of Coudenberg.
The tower in Brabantine Gothic style is the work of Jan van Ruysbroek, the court architect of Philip the Good. By 1455, this tower, replacing the older one, was complete. Above the Town Hall's roof, the square tower narrows to a lavishly pinnacled octagonal openwork. At its summit stands a gilt metal statue of Saint Michael, the patron saint of the City of Brussels, slaying a dragon or demon. The tower, its front archway, and the main building's façade are conspicuously off-centre relative to one another. According to a legend, the architect of the building, upon discovering this "error", leapt to his death from the tower. More likely, the asymmetry of the Town Hall was an accepted consequence of the scattered construction history and space constraints.
Destruction and rebuilding
On 13 August 1695, during the Nine Years' War, a 70,000-strong French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy, began a bombardment of Brussels in an effort to draw the League of Augsburg's forces away from their siege on French-held Namur in what is now Wallonia. The French launched a massive bombardment of the mostly defenceless city centre with cannons and mortars, setting it on fire and flattening the majority of the Grand-Place and the surrounding city. The resulting fire completely gutted the Town Hall, destroying the building's archives and art collections, including paintings by Rogier van der Weyden. Only the stone shell of the building remained standing. That it survived at all is ironic, as it was the principal target of the artillery fire.
After the bombardment, the municipal government funded the Town Hall's repairs by selling houses and land. The interior was soon rebuilt and enlarged by the architect-sculptor , from 1706 to 1717. Van Nerven added three rear wings in the Louis XIV style over the ruins of the former inner cloth market () along the /, transforming the L-shaped building into its present configuration: a quadrilateral with an inner courtyard.
The Town Hall not only housed the city's magistrate, but also, until 1795, the States of Brabant, the representation of the three estates (nobility, clergy and commoners) to the court of the Duke of Brabant. In 1830, the Provisional Government operated from there during the Belgian Revolution, which led to the separation of the Southern Netherlands from the Northern Netherlands, resulting in the formation of Belgium as it is known today.
19th-century restorations
The Town Hall underwent several restoration campaigns throughout the 19th century, beginning in 1840 under the direction of the architect Tilman-François Suys. The interior was later revised by the architect from 1860, in the style of his mentor Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Jamaer was the City of Brussels' architect and also reconstructed the King's House. The interior became dominated by the neo-Gothic: the Maximilian Room and its antechamber with tapestries depicting the life of Clovis, the ornate States of Brabant Room (Municipal Council Room), the likewise richly furnished Gothic Room and the Wedding Room (formerly the courtroom).
Most of the Town Hall's statues were also made at this time. Before then, the building was not adorned with the countless statues it is today, except for corbels, representations of eight prophets above the portal, and a few statues located at the corner turrets. Jamaer reworked the façade by adding non-existent niches, as well as a gallery and a new portal. Between 1844 and 1902, nearly three hundred statues in Caen and , created by famous artists, including Charles Geefs, Charles-Auguste Fraikin, Eugène Simonis and George Minne, were executed. The interior rooms were replenished with tapestries, paintings, and sculptures, largely representing subjects of importance in local and regional history, such as a monumental bronze statue of Saint Michael created by Charles van der Stappen in the entrance.
Contemporary history At the start of World War I, as refugees flooded Brussels, the Town Hall served as a makeshift hospital. On 20 August 1914, the occupying German army arrived at the Grand-Place and hoisted a German flag at the left side of the Town Hall.
During World War II, the Town Hall was again affected by the German occupation. On 18 May 1940, the day after Brussels' surrender, Mayor Joseph Van De Meulebroeck received the German commander in the building's inner courtyard. It was also from the building that the proclamation announcing his removal from office by the occupation authorities was issued on 30 June 1941. Following the war, the building resumed its role as a venue for official receptions; among those received there was Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on 18 September 1947.
The Town Hall was designated a historic monument on 9 March 1936, at the same time as the King's House. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, as part of the Grand-Place's registration. Conservation work has continued into the 21st century. In May 2026, restoration began on the building's two historic external portals: the one on the Grand-Place, dating from the 15th century, and the one on the Rue de l'Amigo, dating from 1717.
The Town Hall remained the City of Brussels' political and administrative seat until 2023, when the mayor, aldermen and municipal administration largely moved to the building, the City's new administrative centre, built on the site of the former Parking 58. Nowadays, the building retains ceremonial and representative functions, including official receptions and weddings, while its historic rooms are still used for cultural events and visits.
Architecture
Tower
The tower, projecting from the façade, is made up of two very different parts that nevertheless form a harmonious ensemble: a square base dating from the first phase of construction and a lantern tower built by Jan van Ruysbroek nearly half a century later.
The square base is pierced by an ogival portal surmounted by the same decoration as the left wing: mullioned windows on the first floor, a row of statues, then mullioned windows inscribed under a trefoil tympanum on the second floor. This square tower is then extended by two floors, each pierced by a pair of ogival bays on the side facing the Grand-Place.
Next comes the finely openwork octagonal lantern tower, supported at its base by four buttressed turrets, also octagonal. It has three levels pierced with openwork ogival bays and adorned with a profusion of arcades, parapets, and gargoyles. It ends with an openwork spire enhanced with gilding and surmounted by the statue of Saint Michael, the patron saint of the City of Brussels, slaying a dragon or demon.
Statue of Saint Michael
The statue of Saint Michael is a work by Michel de Martin Van Rode and was placed on the tower in 1454 or 1455. It was restored several times before being removed in the 1990s and replaced by a copy. The original is kept in the Brussels City Museum, located in the King's House or Bread House building across the Grand-Place.
This statue is made of arranged metal plates and not brassware. Up close, it looks clumsy and ill-proportioned, but these distortions disappear when viewed from afar, from which it appears elegantly proportioned.
The dragon symbolises the Devil or Satan according to the Apocalypse.
Main façade The main façade consists of two asymmetrical wings framing the tower and is terminated by corner turrets. Each wing consists of arcades, a balcony, two stories pierced by large mullioned windows, and is surmounted by a high saddleback roof pierced by numerous hipped dormers. The octagonal corner turrets have several levels, each with faces decorated with trefoil arches. Each level ends with eight gargoyles arranged radially and is surmounted by a walkway with an openwork parapet. The last level is crowned by a stone spire decorated with foliage and surmounted by a weather vane.
The façade is decorated with numerous statues representing the local nobility (such as the Dukes and Duchesses of Brabant and knights of the Noble Houses of Brussels), saints, and allegorical figures. The present sculptures are mainly 19th- and 20th-century reproductions or creations; the original 15th-century ones are also in the Brussels City Museum. Each of these statues rests on a historiated corbels and is sheltered under a finely chiselled stone canopy surmounted by a pyramid-shaped stone pinnacle decorated with foliage pattern and topped with a finial.
Portal The base of the tower is pierced by an ogival portal surmounted by a tympanum depicting Saint Michael surrounded by Saint Sebastian, Saint Christopher, Saint George and Saint Géry (Gaugericus) who, according to legend, erected a chapel that would be at the origin of the City of Brussels.
On either side of this portal stand statues of the four cardinal virtues: Prudentia ("Prudence") and Justitia ("Justice") on the left, Fortitudo ("Fortitude") and Temperantia ("Temperance") on the right. Very expressive historiated corbels support the statues of the virtues.
The tympanum, the statues, and the corbels do not date from the Gothic period but from the 19th-century restorations.
Arcades The base of the façade is adorned with an arcade gallery. These arcades are highly asymmetrical, as mentioned above: the left wing has eleven arches (including a blind arch located under the corner turret), while the right wing has only six. These ogival arcades have an outer curve decorated with cabbage leaves, a typical motif of the Brabantine Gothic style. Each of them is topped with a finial, also adorned with cabbage leaves, and is surmounted by an arcade of trefoil arches.