130 Route 10. BRUSSELS. Lower Town:

had their seat here. The groundfloor and first floor are now occupied
by the municipal authorities; the second floor by the Musée Com-
munal (see below). — Counts Egmont and Hoorn passed the night
previous to their execution in the old Broodhuis, and -are said to
have been conveyed directly from the balcony to the fatal block by
means of a scaffolding, in order to prevent the possibility of a rescue
by the populace.

The Musée Communal (Gemeentelyk Museum; adm., see p. 96; no cata-
logae) is a collection of municipal antiquities. Room I. contains architect-
ural fragments and sculptures from old Brussels. — Room II. is the main
room. Next the windows are plans and views of Brussels; in the three
show-cases to the right, embossed silver-gilt Plague, showing Adam and
Eve in Paradise; the clothes of the Mannikin (p. 131). Case 4. Brussels
china and fayence; to the left, next the windows, ancient documents, in-
cluding the Charte de Cortenburg (48th Feb., 1871), being a treaty between
John I., duke of Brabant, and 58 noblemen and 48 towns, forming the
foundation of the medieval town-rights in Brabant, with many seals; to
the right, ‘Freedom’, an ivory head with a silver helmet, by Paul Dubois;
medals and stamps; on the side next the window, contemporary re-
presentation of a funeral procession organized in Brussels by Philip II. on
the day on which Charles V. was interred (Dec. 5th, 1558). On the right
wall are paintings; beginning at the entrance: Portraits by F. Bot(?), Sir
A. More(?), H. Goltzius (?, Satirical portrait of Diana of Poitiers), and
Mierevelt; Fruit-piece by Snyders (over the chimney-piece); still-life pieces
by J. D. de Heem, W. C. Heda, Abr. van Beyeren, and others. — Room III.
Paintings of the Revolution of 1830; views and plans of Brussels.

The old *Guild Houses (Maisons des Corporations) in the Grand’
Place date mainly from the period after the bombardment by the
French under Villeroi in 1695, and they were carefully restored in
1889-1902. The Grand’ Place owes much of its quaint and character-
istic appearance to the picturesque gables of these houses, to their
pilasters, balustrades, and carved decorations, and to their rich
adornment with gilding. On the N.W. side, to the left in the Rue de
la Téte-d’Or, is the Hall of the Mercers (No. 7; ‘de Vos’ or ‘le Renard’),
dating from 1699. Farther on, to the right, is the Hall of the
Skippers (No.6; 1697), known as the ‘Prégate’, or ‘Cornet’, the
gable of which resembles the stern of a large vessel. Next comes
the Maison de la Lowve, or Hall of the Archers (No.5; 1694), which
derives its name from a group representing Romulus and Remus with
the she-wolf; on the gable is a gilded phenix. To the right of the
Louve is the Hall of the Grease-Merchants (No.4; 1697; ‘le Sac’);
farther to the right is the Hall of the Printers (No. 3; ‘la Browette’);
and at the corner of the Rue au Beurre is the new and stately Hall
of the Bakers, (No. 2), generally known as Le Roi d’Espagne, recon-
structed in 1902 after the original plans by Jan Cosyns. — On the
N.E. side is the Hall of the Tailors (Nos. 24, 25; ‘la Taupe’ and
‘la Chaloupe’), of 1697. — On the S.E. side, adjoining the Rue de la
Colline, is the so-called House of the Dukes of Brabant (Nos. 13-19),
of the beginning of the 48th cent., which belonged to several guilds.
The large building next to this (No. 24), with a balcony borne by
two figures of negroes, was formerly the public Weigh House