€1 million for facades on Brussels’ premier attraction

The Brussels-Capital Region has approved a subsidy of €1.1 million for the restoration of 10 of the most important facades of buildings on the Grand Place, or Grote Markt. The grant is the latest stage of a campaign to clean up all of the façades on the historic square, said Brussels’ minister-president Rudi Vervoort.

The latest phase involves the houses numbered 1 to 7 along the north-eastern side of the square: the buildings known as Den Coninck van Spagniën (number 1); Den Cruywagen, once home of the guild of gardeners at (2-3); Den Sack of the guild of carpenters (4); De Wolf of the archers’ guild (5); Den Horen of the shippers’ guild (6); and De Vos, former home of the merchants’ guild (7). The money also covers five houses (34-38) at the northern corner of the square near Boterstraat.

The region has already carried out restoration work on the façades on the eastern part of the square between numbers 20 and 28, from Heuvelstraat to Haringstraat (pictured). Like during that phase of works, the scaffolding in the current phase will be covered with tarpaulins that depict the original facades of the buildings. The works are expected to take less than a year.

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Ben2/Wikimedia Commons