This is a stroll following the Zenne river, but you will never ever see that river because it has been rigourously erased from Brussels. It is hidden underneath. The river doesn’t mind that, it flows as it always did, but the people, the citizens have become aware that something has been missing and the call to open up the river again, at least at some locations, is growing, because with the vaulting of the Zenne, a lot of Brussel’s history got vaulted too …

After the park at the Magdalenasteenweg, The Wandelgek first reached the Maria Magdalene Church. It is a 15th century church but heavily renovated.

A bit further is the much more interesting Royal Saint Hubert Galleries.

The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries (French: Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert; Dutch: Koninklijke Sint-Hubertusgalerijen) is an ensemble of three glazed shopping arcades in central Brussels, Belgium. It consists of the King’s Gallery (French: Galerie du Roi; Dutch: Koningsgalerij), the Queen’s Gallery (French: Galerie de la Reine; Dutch: Koninginnegalerij) and the Princes’ Gallery (French: Galerie des Princes; Dutch: Prinsengalerij).

The galleries were designed and built by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar between 1846 and 1847, and precede other famous 19th-century European shopping arcades, such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and Galleria Umberto I in Naples and the Passage in Saint Petersburg. Like them, they have twin, regular façades with distant origins in Vasari’s long, narrow, street-like courtyard of the Uffizi in Florence. They feature glazed, arched shopfronts separated by pilasters and two upper floors, all in an Italianate style inspired by the Cinquecento, under an arched, glass-paned roof with a delicate cast-iron framework. The complex was designated a historic monument in 1986.

The Royal Galleries consist of two major sections, each more than 100 metres (330 ft) in length and 8.3 metres (27 ft) in width—respectively called the Galerie du Roi/Koningsgalerij, meaning “King’s Gallery”, and the Galerie de la Reine/Koninginnegalerij, meaning “Queen’s Gallery”—and a smaller side gallery: the Galerie des Princes/Prinsengalerij, meaning “Princes’ Gallery”. The main sections (King’s and Queen’s Gallery) are separated by a peristyle at the point where the Rue des Bouchers/Beenhouwersstraat crosses the gallery complex. At this point, there is a discontinuity in the straight perspective of the galleries. This “bend” was introduced purposefully in order to make the long vista, with its repetition of arches, pilasters and windows, less tedious.

King’s Gallery

The King’s Gallery (French: Galerie du Roi, Dutch: Koningsgalerij) stretches from the Rue des Bouchers to the Rue d’Arenberg/Arenbergstraat and the Rue de l’Ecuyer/Schildknaapsstraat. It notably houses the Royal Theatre of the Galleries. Between 2011 and 2015, it was also home to the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts, which honoured the greatest men and women of art, history, music, the humanities and science.

The Queen’s Gallery (French: Galerie de la Reine, Dutch: Koninginnegalerij), to the south, leads to the Rue du Marché aux Herbes/Grasmarkt, near the Grand-Place/Grote Markt, and on the other side of this street begins the Horta Gallery. The longest of the galleries, its best known shops are Delvaux leather goods and Neuhaus chocolatier, which is the birthplace of the praline. It also houses the Théâtre du Vaudeville, the Cinéma des Galeries and the Taverne du Passage restaurant.

The Princes’ Gallery (French: Galerie des Princes, Dutch: Prinsengalerij) is located perpendicularly between the King’s Gallery and the Rue des Dominicains/Predikherenstraat. Smaller and more sober in its design, but without disrupting the harmony, it is home to Tropismes bookshop, housed in the former Café des Princes.

This is such a cool bookshop, which you should not mis. It is in the Princes’ gallery.

Tropismes Bookstore is a French-language general bookstore that focuses on literature and the humanities, as well as fine arts and children’s books. It continues to deepen, in a spirit of independence and research, its vocation of service to readers and its curiosity about books…

In the magnificent setting of the Galleries Saint-Hubert, built in 1847 by the architect Cluysenaer, the Tropismes bookstore moved in 1984 to the former “Blue Note,” a mecca of Belgian and international jazz in the 1960s, which had retained from a ballroom for well-behaved young ladies mirrored walls, an impressive mezzanine, a ceiling with astonishing stucco and ribboned columns… Book shelves and display tables were integrated with enchantment.

In 1992, the books were feeling increasingly cramped. The young architect Philippe Jelli then imagined investing in the cellars by completely redesigning the space. Ten years later, Tropismes expanded beyond its walls and it was at number 11, Galerie du Roi, next to the famous Mokafé that the same architect redesigned the premises to make it the ideal place for young people and comic book lovers. On June 1, 2007, Tropismes raised the curtain on its new entrance at number 4 of the Galerie du Roi: a magical space into which the Tropismes Jeunesse and comic book booksellers moved, joined by their colleagues from the Travel & Leisure departments. This was the opportunity for the Humanities department to take on its full scope and to enrich itself with books on ecology, the environment, geography, economics and management.

The Wandelgek was completely in love with this bookstore. Not only the great collection, but the really wonderful warm and cozy space with a lot of woodwork is perfect…

In the Queen’s gallery is the Neuhaus chocolatier. 

Jean Neuhaus was a Swiss of Italian descent. When his family settled in Switzerland, they changed their Italian name, Casanova, to its German translation: Neuhaus (new house). Neuhaus originated when Jean Neuhaus, after leaving Switzerland in 1857, settled in the Queen’s Gallery in Brussels. He opened a pharmacy there, which he ran with his son Frederich. Sales of pills and cough drops increased significantly when he coated them with chocolate to mask their often bitter taste.

The pharmacy’s business gradually shifted to a candy store. In 1912, his grandson, Jean Neuhaus Jr., further developed this chocolate coating into the chocolate bonbon with a soft filling, the praline. A few years later, his wife, Louise Agostini, invented the Ballotin, the box in which pralines are still packaged today. The cone-shaped bags initially used for pralines were easily broken. The ballotin was patented on August 16, 1915, but Jean Neuhaus decided not to ask for royalties from his fellow chocolatiers.

In the Queen’s gallery is another chocolaterie, La Belgique Gourmande, which also  has a fabulous collection of chocolate bonbons and pralines.

Next the Wandelgek visited the Theatre du Vaudeville, which was now a movie cinema. The Wandelgek had decided to go to a movie with dutch translation and chose for The quiet girl.

The movie was sceduled in the evening, so The Wandelgek went further on his walk first.

François Schuiten is deeply influenced by his fascination with architecture, urban utopias, and the spirit of European cities. Schuiten envisions the Royal Saint Hubert Gallery as a symbolic heart of Brussels, reflecting both its historical grandeur and its role as a center of culture and imagination. His depiction emphasizes the interplay of light, space, and perspective, transforming the iconic gallery into a place where the past and future of the city converge in harmony.

The depiction of the gallery below clearly shows an envisioning  of such a historic gallery, surrounded by modern architecture which can only lead to the impression that there had to be historic architecture which has all but disappeared. A returning topic …

After a while The Wandelgek left the galleries and walked via the Grasmarkt and the Heuvelstraat toward the Groote Markt, the pinnacle of historic architecture in Western Europe.

This square is without doubt the most beautiful square in Europe and it surpasses in architectural beauty even cities like Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp and all the dutch cities. The Grand Place boasts the City Hall, The Broodhuis, The Marriott Hotel and The King of Spain.

In the previous blogpost I advised to survey the city, and let yourself be carried away by its inscrutability. Brussels buried the Zenne alive, and with it erased a large part of its earliest history. Recently, however, the capital has been open to introspection.So try to understand her, even as she hides and continually disturbs and breaks every perspective.

To do this it is best to visit the museum inside the Broodhuis on the Grand Place, where the exhibition show historic maps and an old maquette where you can try to remember some recogizable orientation points like the Atomium, the Koekelbergbasiliek, the South Tower and the Palace of Justice, but The Wandelgek was going to skip this for now in favor of proceeding the walk.

The details seen on the buildings of the Grand Place are beautiful. Having binoculars or a good camera lens to watch these details is

For those readers who can’t get enough of this gorgeous square or who like to see more photographs of the Grand Place as a whole I recommend viewing this blogpost of a previous visit of The Wandelgek to Brussels:

Brussel – 2010

The Wandelgek left the Grote Markt via the Boterstraat (Butterstreet) and walked on until he reached the Stock exchange building of Brussels (De Beurs)…

The Brussels Stock Exchange (French: Bourse de Bruxelles; Dutch: Beurs van Brussel), abbreviated to BSE, was founded in Brussels, Belgium, by decree of Napoleon in 1801. In 2002, the BSE merged with the Amsterdam, Lisbon and Paris stock exchanges into Euronext, renaming the BSE Euronext Brussels. The most well known stock market index on the BSE is the BEL20.

The former Brussels Stock Exchange building (French: Palais de la Bourse; Dutch: Beurspaleis), usually shortened to Bourse or Beurs, is located on the Place de la Bourse/Beursplein along the Boulevard Anspach/Anspachlaan. This area is served by the premetro (underground tram) station Bourse – Grand-Place/Beurs – Grote Markt on lines 4 and 10.

Created in 1801 by decree of Napoleon, the Stock Exchange (French: Bourse de Commerce) established in Brussels successively occupied different premises. From 1858, a time when it experienced considerable development following the country’s economic and industrial growth, the cramped and unsanitary conditions of the various premises led the business community to demand, from the municipal authorities, the erection of a new stock exchange.

Following the covering of the river Senne for health and aesthetic reasons between 1867 and 1871, a massive programme of beautification of Brussels’ city centre was undertaken. Having become a priority in the list of works of public utility, this undertaking gave rise, at the time, to numerous proposals including that of the architect Léon-Pierre Suys which, as part of his proposal to construct a series of grand boulevards in the river’s place, designed a stock exchange building to become the centre of the rapidly expanding business sector. Supported by several petitions, Suys’ proposal won the support of the municipal council.

 

The Brussels Stock Exchange (BSE) building was erected from 1868 to 1873, halfway down the newly created Boulevard Anspach/Anspachlaan (then called the Boulevard Central/Centraallaan), on the site of the former Butter Market (French: Marché au Beurre, Dutch: Botermarkt), itself built over the remains of the 13th-century Recollets Franciscan convent. The building was inaugurated with a large ball in the presence of King Leopold II, his wife Queen Marie Henriette, and his brother Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders. In parallel to these works, a large square, called the Place de la Bourse/Beursplein, was created in front of the building.

The eclectic building, inspired by Palladian architecture, mixes borrowings from the neo-Renaissance and Second Empire styles. It has an abundance of ornaments and sculptures, created by famous artists, including the brothers Jacques and Jean-Joseph Jacquet, the French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and his then-assistant Auguste Rodin. Some of the best examples are the group of four allegorical figures on the façade by Guillaume de Groot, symbolising Art, Agriculture, Industry and Science, as well as the friezes by Carrier-Belleuse, to which Rodin may have contributed.

Via the Beursstraat (Stock Exchange Street), to the right of the Beurs, The Wandelgek reached the crossing of the Anspachlaan / Boulevard Anspach.

The Boulevard Anspach (French) or Anspachlaan (Dutch) is a central boulevard in Brussels, Belgium, connecting the Place de Brouckère/De Brouckèreplein to the Place Fontainas/Fontainasplein. It was created following the covering of the river Zenne (1867–1871), and bears the name of Jules Anspach, a former mayor of the City of Brussels.

Baron Jules Victor Anspach (20 July 1829 – 19 May 1879) was a Belgian liberal politician and mayor of the City of Brussels. He is best known for his renovations surrounding the covering of the river Zenne (1867–1871).

Anspachlaan, now a major boulevard in Brussels, embodies the city’s dramatic 19th-century transformation when the river Senne was covered to modernize and sanitize the urban landscape. In François Schuiten’s viewpoint, this intervention marks both progress and loss: a triumph of urban order inspired by Baron Haussmann’s Paris—widened boulevards, monumental perspectives, and the willful erasure of old neighborhoods—to create a city fit for modern life, but also deprived of organic complexity and historical memory.

Between 1868 and 1871, under Mayor Jules Anspach, Brussels undertook the vast civil engineering feat of covering the polluted Senne. This effort echoed the radical works of Haussmann, the architect behind Paris’s renovation, aiming to cure public health woes and impose grand, geometric order on the medieval city fabric. For Schuiten, who often explores themes of lost urban worlds, the project stands as an emblem of “progress,” but also of vanished intimacy and forgotten waterways—he frames it as both necessary modernization and a kind of urban amnesia.

Haussmann’s template—broad boulevards, axial vistas, regular facades—directly inspired Anspachlaan’s conception. The transformation was guided by architect Léon Suys, who laid out the new avenue above the buried Senne, imposing the symmetrical, rational style then in vogue. Schuiten’s works often meditate on this paradox: the allure of monumental city-building, but at the expense of the chaotic, layered life of the city beneath, as typified by the fate of the Senne.

For François Schuiten, Anspachlaan’s creation holds a dual legacy: it is both the product of an era’s utopian ambitions and a reminder of the stories and spaces erased by such ambition. In graphic novels like “Brüsel,” he draws upon the legacy of Anspach and Haussmann, evoking urban landscapes where rational order is haunted by the persistence of memory and myth—where a covered river runs silently beneath the city, a “phantom waterway” shaping what is remembered and what is lost.

Anspachlaan, now a major boulevard in Brussels, embodies the city’s dramatic 19th-century transformation when the river Senne was covered to modernize and sanitize the urban landscape. In François Schuiten’s viewpoint, this intervention marks both progress and loss: a triumph of urban order inspired by Baron Haussmann’s Paris—widened boulevards, monumental perspectives, and the willful erasure of old neighborhoods—to create a city fit for modern life, but also deprived of organic complexity and historical memory.

Between 1868 and 1871, under Mayor Jules Anspach, Brussels undertook the vast civil engineering feat of covering the polluted Senne. This effort echoed the radical works of Haussmann, the architect behind Paris’s renovation, aiming to cure public health woes and impose grand, geometric order on the medieval city fabric. For Schuiten, who often explores themes of lost urban worlds, the project stands as an emblem of “progress,” but also of vanished intimacy and forgotten waterways—he frames it as both necessary modernization and a kind of urban amnesia.

After crossing the Anspachlaan, enter the August Orts Straat / Rue Auguste Orts. Auguste Orts Street ( Dutch  : August Ortsstraat ) is located in the Zenne district of the city of Brussels .

It is a street with some trendy cafés, like e.g. Le Coq…

The August Orts Straat / Rue Auguste Orts. Auguste Orts Street is a street with lots of beautiful art nouveau and art deco style buildings …

The Wandelgek now turned left into the Visverkoper-straat and then the Van Arteveldstraat and almost immediately right into the Kartuizerstraat. The plan was to find the Greenwich Café, but he didn’t immediately spot it and walked on toward the Bloemenhofplein. Meanwhile he found loads of wonderful graffiti and street art.

This comic book wall e.g. in the Karthuizerstraat, was about Yslaire’s De Hemel boven Brussel diptych, in which a Jewish looking man and a beautiful suicide terrorist from Schaarbeek decide to make love during a CNN live broadcast of the war against Irak. The Archangel is its name.

Yslaire, pseudoniem van Bernard Hislaire, (Brussel, 11 januari 1957) is een Belgische striptekenaar en tekstschrijver, vooral bekend om zijn reeks Frommeltje en Viola en Samber. Hij maakte deel uit van De Mazdabende, een atelier met 3 tekenaars boven een Mazda garage waarop de stripreeks De Mazdabende is gebaseerd.

Left on the corner of the Karthuizerstraat and the Sint Kristoffelstraat (Saint-Christopher Street), were some beautiful street art portraits …

Jacques Brel

After having visited the Bloemenhofplein, and returning into the Karthuizerstraat, where the cheaper buildings of the wool spinneries were found have gradually been filled with boutiques and galleries on the ground floor, The Wandelgek found Café Greenwich.

A Brussels institution that combines Art Nouveau charm with authentic Belgian cuisine in a friendly atmosphere in the heart of Brussels.

For more than a century, the Greenwich has embodied the spirit of Brussels as a meeting place for Belgian art, culture and gastronomy. A testament to the surrealist heritage, this Art Nouveau space has hosted legendary figures, from René Magritte to chess enthusiasts, to become a must-see in Brussels.

The Belgian cuisine kitchen looks good and The Wandelgek chose the Lapin A La Kriek or the Rabbit in Kriek (local Brussels’ cherry beer).

This combined with some great Belgian beers would mean a great dinner …

The interior is awesome if you love art nouveau …

Sit down at a table in this café with yellowed walls, which seems to stand outside of time, where chess players focused on their game exude a silence in which you will be happy to take a seat.

René Magritte was one of those chess players who came here regularly to play.

A funny anecdote about Rene Magritte tells about how he painted his famous blue sky wit white clouds on glass beer or wine bottles. Brewery Moortgat famous because of their Duvel beer, which is one of my three all time favorite beers, commemorated this by reissuing a beer bottle with this Magritte sky on top and packaged it as an exclusive gift bottle or collectors bottle. The bottle contained an unfiltered Duvel, renamed: “Surreal Blonde” …

 

A Trappistes Rochefort 8 to finish the dinner …

The details are really good and some tables have chess boards as table top …

Everything breaths a jump back in time …

The dinner started with a Gazpacho (cold Spanish soup) and then the rabbit followed. A Blanche Namur (Belgian white beer) accompanied the meal.

After leaving Café Greenwich, The Wandelgek walked to the Sint Goriksplein and on it are the Sint-Gorikshallen (this location was that of the Sint-Goriks island, before the vaulting of the Zenne river.

 

The Wandelgek had a drink on ona of the many terraces that now surround these halls. Around and inside are now many shops.

Finishing the walk for today, you should have been able to feel a bit what the vaulting of the Zenne river has done to this city, because you’ve been walking on top of the vaulted Zenne for quite a while now. In my next blogpost I will show you more about its history.

Now The Wandelgek returned past the Beurs/ Stock Exchange, …

… which looked gorgeous now that the sunlight was waning …

He suddenly saw this poster in a shop window which showed a wonderful view over Brussels …

Another shop window of a souvenir shop imitated the rainbow flag colors with Manneken Piss copies …

Then the walk went over the Grand Place / Grote Markt again …

… and as evening was falling …

… and the lights were turned on …

… he reached the Saint Hubert Galleries once more …

Inside the rainbow flag coloring lights in celebration of the Brussels Pride Parade were awesome …

The colors were following eachother …

… but there was also a rainbow of colors effect …

The Wandelgek went to the Vaudeville Theater to see the movie The Quiet girl to end the day.

It was a beautiful seemingly old movie theater …

… with a large movie hall, with some classical ornaments …

The Quiet Girl is a gentle coming-of-age drama about a neglected nine-year-old girl, Cáit, who is sent from her chaotic, impoverished home in rural Ireland to spend the summer with distant relatives on a quiet farm in 1981. In the care of the kind Eibhlín and her initially reserved husband Seán, Cáit slowly blossoms as she experiences warmth, routine, and genuine affection for the first time. Over the summer she and the couple form a deep, understated bond, even as Cáit gradually learns about a past family tragedy that explains their grief and Seán’s early coldness. When she is finally taken back to her biological parents, the painful contrast between the two households underlines the film’s central theme: that real family is defined by care and love rather than blood alone.

After the movie, The Wandelgek returned via a brisk walk to Liberty Square near his hotel, where he spend his last night in Brussels.

Still one day left before leaving in the early evening of the next day.