Fortifications of Brussels

Construction of the first walls of Brussels is estimated to have taken place at the beginning of the 13th century, during the reign of Henry I, the first duke of Brabant.[1] The beginning and end dates are not clear, but construction would have lasted several decades. On the other hand, from historical maps and other documents which have been preserved, the precise former course of the walls is known.

The walls were 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) long. In the west, they encompassed Saint-Géry/Sint-Goriks Island (the site of the city's founding and first development, where today's Halles Saint-Géry/Sint-Gorikshallen are located), the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (the city's main square), and the first port on the river Senne. They extended to the heights in the east of the city, enclosing the first Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula (then a collegiate church) on the Treurenberg hill (French: Mont des pleurs; "Mount of tears"), where the St. Gudula Gate stood (integrated in these first walls), and which was later used as a notorious prison, hence its name,[2] as well as the ducal palace of Coudenberg.[3]

The walls were initially made of earth, with a wooden fence on top. These gave way to walls made of stone that were 10 metres (33 ft) tall and 1 to 2.5 metres (3 to 8 ft) thick.[3] The walls were supported by square pillars, spaced roughly 4 metres (13 ft) apart, linked by a row of arches for support. These were buried underneath a talus, and they supported the main wall, which had a number of arrow slits in it. A second arcade supported a crenellated parapet, where defenders could stand. A large ditch was dug in front of the walls, and in places this could be flooded with water to form a moat if needed. Along the length of the walls, there were roughly forty defensive towers, in addition to seven primary gates and five smaller entrances.

Everard t'Serclaes monument in Brussels. t'Serclaes scaled the first walls to retake Brussels from the Flemings, and would participate in the second walls' planning.

The death of Duke John III of Brabant in 1355 sparked a succession crisis. As both of his sons had died, he left the throne to his daughter Joanna and her husband Wenceslaus I of Luxembourg. Count Louis II of Flanders had married Joan's younger sister Margaret and thought the throne should be his. Louis invaded Brabant and quickly seized Brussels, planting the Flemish lion flag in the middle of the Grand-Place.[3] The city walls offered relatively little protection.

During the night of 24 October 1356, a group of Brabantian patriots led by Everard t'Serclaes scaled the city walls and drove the Flemings from the city. This enabled Joanna and Wenceslaus to make their Joyous Entry into Brussels, which would be seen as the equivalent of the Magna Carta for the Low Countries.[4]

Since the construction of the first walls in the 13th century, Brussels had grown extensively and had become quite important. On account of this growth, the first walls were no longer large enough, as the city had begun to spread out beyond them. It had become clear that further defences, better adapted to the current era, needed to be constructed. Following the succession crisis, city authorities decided to build a new set of walls. Everard 't Serclaes, who had been named schepen (alderman), was among those contributing to the decision.

Map of Brussels immediately following the 1695 bombardment. The white areas in the centre are the areas destroyed. Monterrey Fort is visible on the right. North is roughly to the bottom-left.

In the 16th century, there were seven gates: Laeken, Flanders, Anderlecht, Halle, Namur, Leuven and Schaerbeek, each named for the direction of the road leading out of the gate. An eighth was added in 1561, the Shore Gate (French: Porte du Rivage, Dutch: Oeverpoort), designed to control access to Brussels' port from the newly constructed Willebroek Canal.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, new siege weapons and techniques, including the advent of artillery, forced the city to modernise the defences in order to keep potential attackers at a safe distance from the walls, including the addition of ditches, bastions and ravelins. Monterey Fort was the most important defensive work, its name coming from the Spanish count responsible for modernising the defences. The fort was built between 1672 and 1675, by the military engineers Merex and Blom, on the heights of Obbrussel (Old Dutch: Obbrusselsche, for "Upper Brussels", now Saint-Gilles), south of the Halle Gate.[5] As with the rest of the city's fortifications, the fort was ineffective, and was not able to prevent the French bombardment of Brussels in 1695, from the heights of Scheut, in Anderlecht, as part of the War of the Grand Alliance. The defensive works proved equally ineffective when French troops seized the city in 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession, afterwards leaving the defensive works in ruins.[5] By that time, siege was no longer an important part of warfare. Due to the growth of commerce and improved roads, the fortifications did little more than frustrate transit into and out of the city.

In 1782, Emperor Joseph II ordered the dismantling of most fortifications in the Low Countries, including those of Brussels.[5] The dismantling work of the exterior defences began in the east of the city. Monterey Fort was sold and destroyed, and all of the Gates were razed with the exception of the Laeken Gate and the Halle Gate.[5]

In 1795, when Republican France invaded and annexed the Low Countries, the demolitions were stopped, not resuming until an order from Napoleon in 1804. The Laeken Gate was destroyed in 1808. By an ordinance on 19 May 1810, the French dictator ordered the second walls demolished and replaced by boulevards with a median in the centre.[5] The fall of the First French Empire prevented the project's immediate execution.

• 
  The Black Tower, behind St. Catherine's Church, in the city centre
• 
  The Anneessens Tower or Angle Tower, outside view
• 
  The Anneessens Tower or Angle Tower, inside view
• 
  St. James Tower, seen from outside the walls

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  The Halle Gate in 2011
• 
  The Schaerbeek Gate in 1612
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  The Leuven Gate in 1612
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  The Anderlecht Gate in 1612
• 
  The Namur Gate, c. 1800

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  The former toll pavilions at the Place de Ninove/Ninoofsplein
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  One of the two former toll pavilions at the Anderlecht Gate
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  One of the two former toll pavilions at the Namur Gate, now in the Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos

• Astrid Lelarge, La démolition du rempart et des fortifications aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Bruxelles, l'émergence de la ville contemporaine (in French), 2001, ISBN 9782960029802
• Claire Dickstein-Bernard, La construction de l'enceinte bruxelloise de 1357. Essai de chronologie des travaux (in French), in: Brusselse cahiers, vol. 35, 1995–96, p. 91–128
• Gérard Sand e.a., Clés et défense d'une ville: Bruxelles et son histoire = Sleutel en verdediging van een stad: Brussel en haar geschiedenis (in French–Dutch), Brussels, Gemeentekrediet, 1984
• Spapens, Christian (2005). Les Boulevards extérieurs de la Porte de Hal à la Place Rogier. Bruxelles, ville d'Art et d'Histoire (in French). Vol. 40. Brussels: Centre d'information, de Documentation et d'Etude du Patrimoine. ISBN 978-2-96005-026-4.