Martyrs' Square
Neoclassical square with a crypt of nineteenth-century revolutionaries beneath a marble liberty monument.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Martyrs' Square in Brussels opens in late September 1830, days after fighting ends in the city, when officials have hundreds of dead from the uprising against Dutch rule and no plan for a tragedy of this size. It follows the decision to bury them beneath this square, once a bleaching field for laundry, and the Liberty monument raised here eight years later by architect Louis Roelandt and sculptor Guillaume Geefs. Look for the four angels guarding its pedestal, each named for a stage of sacrifice.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Het Coudenbergpaleis
Buried royal palace ruins beneath a neoclassical square, hiding a fire-cover-up and centuries of secrets.
Kleine Zavelsquare
Iron-fenced garden ringed by guild statuettes, centered on a monument to two beheaded noblemen.
Parc de Bruxelles
Formal neoclassical park of geometric avenues, statues and a central pond on former royal hunting grounds.
Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg Catholic Church
Neoclassical church styled as a Roman temple, where Belgium's first king swore his oath on the front steps.
Lion's Mound
Man-made conical hill topped by a colossal iron lion, marking where a prince fell wounded in battle.
Koningsplein - Statue of Godfrey of Bouillon
Equestrian bronze of a crusader duke raising his banner, cast in eighteen forty eight to give a new nation a shared hero.