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BELGIUM |
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TOURIST ATTRACTIONS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: JUSTICE PALACE / PALAIS DE JUSTICE:
Palais de Justice, Brussels. Photo:
Donderwolk, July 14, 2005
Law Courts of Brussels:
The Law Courts of Brussels or Brussels Palace of
Justice ( Dutch:
Justitiepaleis
(help·info),
French: Palais de Justice) is the most important
Court building in
Belgium and is a notable landmark of
Brussels. It was built between
1866
and
1883 in the
eclectic style by architect
Joseph Poelaert. The total cost of the construction, land
and furnishings was somewhere in the region of 45 million
Belgian francs. It is the biggest building constructed in
the 19th century. History:
In 1860, during the reign of
Léopold I, a Royal decree announced the building of
the Palace of Justice and an international architecture
contest was organised for its design. The designs
entered in the contest were found to be unacceptable and
were thus rejected. The then minister of justice Tesch
appointed Joseph Poelaert to design the building in
1861. The first stone was laid on October 31, 1866, and
the building was inaugurated on October 15, 1883, after
Poelaert's death. For the building of the Palace of
Justice, a part of the
Marollen neighbourhood was demolished. The
inhabitants were forced to move by the Belgian
government and received in compensation new houses in a
new quartier of
Uccle still existing. The word architect
became one of the most serious insults in Brussels. The
Palace's location is on the Galgenberg hill,
where in the
Middle Ages convicted criminals were hanged.
The building includes huge interior statues of
Demosthenes and
Lycurgus, by sculptor
Pierre Armand Cattier, and figures of Roman
jurists
Cicero and
Ulpian, by
Antoine-Félix Bouré. Although the
construction took place during the reign of
Léopold II, he showed little interest in the
building, and it's not considered part of his
extensive architectural program in Brussels or
his legacy as the "Builder-King".
Renovation:
At the end of the
Second World War, on the eve of the
liberation of Brussels, the retreating
Germans started a fire in the Palace of
Justice in order to destroy it. As a
result, the cupola collapsed and part of
the building was heavily damaged. By
1947 most of the building was repaired
and the cupola was rebuilt two and a
half meters higher than the original.
Starting in 2003, renovations have begun
on the building. These renovations
pertain to the repair and strengthening
of the roof structure and the walls as
well as putting a new layer on the
gilded cupola.
Dimensions:
The Brussels Palace of Justice
is bigger than
St. Peter's Basilica in
Rome. The building is
currently 160 by 150 meters, and
has a total built ground surface
of 26,000 m². The 104 meter high
dome weighs 24,000 tons. The
building has 8 courtyards with a
surface of 6000 m², 27 large
court rooms and 245 smaller
court rooms and other rooms.
Situated on a hill, there is a
level difference of 20 meters
between the upper and lower
town, which results in multiple
entrances to the building at
different levels.
Influence:
Adolf Hitler was
tremendously fond of the
building and, in collaboration
with
Albert Speer, based several
of the monumental buildings of
the Nazi era on the design of
the court. See:
Nazi architectureAlthough
lacking the dome and being much
smaller, the
Justice Palace in
Lima in
Peru, which houses the
Supreme Court of Peru, is
based upon the Brussels Palace
of Justice.
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