la grande place

at the heart of brussels lies the grand place, an incredibly beautiful and majestic little square (or even better, think of a university quadrangle) surrounded on all sides by buildings of breathtakingly ornate embellishment.the grand place is one of the major tourist destinations in brussels. normally i think i'd find that a bit unbecoming, but not in this case -- it really was spectacular! i think it earns every single tourist passing through.the buildings surrounding the grand place consist mostly of the town hall (the top picture above) and a number of guild halls.the town hall (the most prominent building) was constructed in the first half of the 1400's, and the rest of the grand place was laid out thereafter.
in 1695, the french army bombarded brussels, destroying essentially everything in the grand place except the town hall (which, ironically, had been the main target of the attack). in the next four years, the various guilds rebuilt their halls -- the exteriors of which are basically what you see today. the phoenix atop one of the guild halls in the picture below represents the grand place's rebirth.
check out this cool link to see the grand place in all 360 degrees of its glory!