SAINT CATHERINE SQUARE
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With its village feel and seafood restaurants, Place Sainte-Catherine is a charming place.
The church of Sainte-Catherine, which dominates the square of the same name, was built on one of the basins of the former port of Brussels. Joseph Poelaert, architect of the Palais de Justice, built it in 1854. It draws its influences from Gothic, Romanesque and Renaissance styles. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, a fruit and vegetable market enlivens the square, which fills up at lunchtime. Incredibly, the square still boasts a number of houses that escaped the bombardment of 1695, notablynos. 3 to 9, formerly occupied by the Protestant church. Vincent Van Gogh studied theology here before becoming a painter.
To the north-west of the square, the area of the old quays (unloading docks, ancestors of today's port) remains clearly identifiable: between the Quai des Briques and the Quai au Bois-à-Brûler, the area of the old basin was first reserved for a covered fish market (hence the name Vismet, fish market), which in turn gave way to today's beautiful pedestrian layout. Two small rectangular ponds are a reminder of the site's former vocation, and the memory of the fish market lives on in the many restaurants in the area.
Behind the chevet of the church stands one of the last vestiges of Brussels' first city walls (13th century), the Tour noire, now part of the Novotel hotel. During its restoration in the 19th century, it was fitted with a conical roof, hardly typical of Brabant military architecture.
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Quelques rues plus loin, le pré salé est un excellent restaurant pour déguster des moules comme un Bruxellois.