Second city wall of Brussels

En un regard

Le château en bref

The second city wall of Brussels was begun in 1357, after Louis de Male had taken the city, to protect a town that had outgrown its first enclosure. About eight kilometres long, twice the length of the previous one, it comprised an earthen embankment made from the spoil of the ditches, a wall on arcades with a brick core and an outer facing of local white stone, some seventy semicircular towers, and two circular towers to the east, the Grosse Tour and the Blue Tower. Seven gates originally opened in it (Hal, Namur, Louvain, Schaerbeek, Laeken, Flanders, Anderlecht), and an eighth, the Rivage Gate, was added in the 16th century. Its demolition began at the end of the 18th century under Joseph II; the ramparts were then razed and replaced by the boulevards of the Petite Ceinture, completed around 1850, whose pentagonal route still preserves its memory. The Hal Gate, which served among other things as a prison, is the only major surviving monument; a stretch of curtain wall visible at the Hôtel des Monnaies metro station, and the toll pavilions at the former Anderlecht and Ninove gates, also survive.