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.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg Catholic Church in Brussels opens on the steps outside in July eighteen thirty-one, with a German prince climbing onto a stand hung with the names of young revolutionaries and reading Belgium's brand-new constitution aloud. It traces the building's stranger history first, back to the seventeen eighties, when Austrian governors raised its Roman-temple-style columns, and the French Revolution years when it briefly stopped being a church altogether. Stand on the steps facing the square, where the columns were styled deliberately after a pagan peristyle.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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