SAINT CATHERINE SQUARE
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With its village feel and seafood restaurants, Place Sainte-Catherine is a charming place.
The church of Saint Catherine, which dominates the square of the same name, was built on one of the basins of the old port of Brussels. Joseph Poelaert, architect of the Palace of Justice, built it in 1854. It draws its influences from the Gothic, Romanesque and Renaissance styles at the same time. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, a fruit and vegetable market animates the square, which fills up at lunchtime. Incredibly, the square still has a few houses that escaped the bombing of 1695, notably on the side ofnos. 3 to 9, formerly occupied by the Protestant church. Vincent Van Gogh studied theology there before becoming a painter.
To the northwest of the square, the area of the old quays (unloading docks, ancestors of the present port) remains clearly identifiable: between the Quai des Briques and the Quai au Bois-à-Brûler, the space of the old basin was first reserved for a covered fish market (hence the name Vismet
, fish market) which, in turn, gave way to the present beautiful pedestrian layout. Two small rectangular ponds remind us of the former vocation of the place and the memory of the fish market persists in the numerous restaurants of the district.Behind the chevet of the church remains one of the last vestiges of the first Brussels wall (13th century), the Black Tower, now integrated into the Novotel hotel. During its restoration in the last century, it was given a conical roof that is not very likely in the military architecture of Brabant.
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