Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Brussels 6th century walls. Just a remnant, found when they tore down an old warehouse which had used this wall as part of its structure. Part of the inner city walls, which enclosed the high rent district. South of these walls is the "warehouse" district which presumably they would lose first. Makes sense...if for some reason your enemy was to attack by sea! I have my own suspicions about the arrangements of walls and defences...involving class structure and possible city rebellion against said class structure.
Another good example. As you can see, the archer's slit is perfectly place to defend the town against the de-classe bowlers.
Metalwork in the Groetplace. This door dates so far back they don't even know themselves how old it is. Love the hinges...I can stare at this picture for an hour and not see all there is to see of this door.
This is the black tower....or is it "hot tower". The "haute port" used to be the south entrance of the city of Brussels, and once upon a time it contained a collection of armour. Unfortuneately, the guidebook I used was way out of date...they moved the armour collection to another museum sometime in the late sixties!
Random architecture on the street. This street is sort of a "main street", in that it went due north from the haute porte to the inner city walls. This was the old warehouse district, or rather, business district, with houses and shops designed for the working people. The "working people" seemed to live pretty well though!

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