Coudenberg Palace - Paradise on earth in the 16th century

When visiting the Coudenberg Palace in 1520, Albrecht Durer wrote: “Behind the King’s House in Brussels, I saw fountains, a maze and hunting grounds. Never in my life had I seen anything as entertaining and pleasant. It’s like paradise.”

Thirty years later, Juan Christobal Calvete de Estrella, when inspecting the palace for a royal visit describes it as “truly royal, large enough to house the emperor, princes, queens and ladies of the court together with all the serving officers”.

The palace consisted of a chapel, royal appartments, a banqueting hall, kitchens, administrative offices, … It contained a vineyard, an orangerie, a list field for jousting, a tennis court, hunting grounds, flower gardens, several walled gardens with fountains and artificial grottoes.

The development of this paradise started in the 11th century with a castle. Originally, the palace started as a fort, and was part of the first defensive wall of Brussels. When a second wall was constructed in the 14th century, the Coudenberg lost its military function and the castle was gradually transformed into a palace.

When Brussels became the capital city of the Low Countries, the Dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburgs adopted the palace as residence. Charles V, the monarch on whose empire the sun never set, but who spent 28 years of his life in the Low Countries, used it as one of his main residences. He was emancipated in it in 1515, and choose it as the location for his abdication in 1555.

Other historic events in the palace include the accession to governance of the Low Countries by Mary of Hungary and the wedding feast of Alexander Farnese.

The palace was mostly destroyed by fire in 1731 and its Gothic remains were taken down four decades to make place for the Royal District, a neo-classical urban development. What remains of the palace is an underground complex that was excavated in 1985.

We can have a good image of what the palace looked like since it shows up in many paintings, drawings and maps. Some of these can be viewed in the Brussels City Museum. This includes even paintings of the interior of the palace, e.g. the Aula Magna and the Chapel, as well as of some of the historic events that took place on its premises.

The visit of the underground complex takes you through the royal apartments, the chapel, the gardens, the Aula magna, Rue Isabelle and ends with the Hoogstraten-Lalaing house. You’ll need lots of imagination to picture Dürer’s paradise on earth, but lively explanations, pictures and even a model of the Palace help you.

Count at least one hour for a quick visit, and 2 hours for a leisure visit. On the premise, there is a great bookshop and a museum cafeteria where you can enjoy a salad buffet based on local products. The facilities and entrance are shared with the BelVue museum (dedicated to the history of Belgium as a country).

The Musical Instruments Museum

Most children in Brussels, by the age of 12, will have visited the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) multiple times. The museum is popular for schools, families and birthday parties. It’s a visit for all ages and an absolute must for tourists. Why? The MIM has it all:

• a museum with an original concept
• a extensive museum shop
• an exceptional building
• a rooftop restaurant with panoramic view, where you can enjoy typical Belgian cuisine

What makes the museum concept original? There are no big text displays with long explanations. The visit is made by headphone. When walking near any of the instruments on display, you’ll hear them play.

Not much more should be written about the MIM. Just go there and experience it yourself.

ID #251 on the Belgian Tourist Map.

Ultimate list of Belgian Tourist Cities

It's often said that there is more to Belgium and the major cities of Flanders and Brabant. But how much more? Here's an attempt to an ultimate list of touristic cities in Belgium. Vote, comment or add your own:

Touristic cities in Belgium

View more lists from Hans De Keulenaer

The Zimmer tower in Lier - the world's slowest mechanical construction

In the city of Lier, not far from Antwerp, stands the Cornelius tower, a last remnant of the city’s medieval fortification. Today, it is better known as the Zimmer tower, because of the unique clocks it hosts from watchmaker and self-made astronomer Louis Zimmer.

Even if you’re not much interested in clockmaking and telling time, this is a unique visit well worth your while, since it includes three master-pieces with world-wide fame: the Jubilee Clock and Astronomical Studio in the tower, and the Wonderclock in a nearby pavillion.

In total, these 3 constructions have 163 dials, but are driven by only 2 clock mechanisms. Why in the world would one need 163 dials to tell time? What do they show?

• Measurements of time: of course time itself, in various timezones, as well as day of the month, day of the week, month, season, zodiac, the decimal hour, sideral time, …. Note that we’re well before the electronics age, and all variables are mechanically calculated, driven by 2 mechanisms only.
• Phenomena driven by time: astronomical phenomena, such as the lunar cycle, distance between earth and sun, earth’s velocity, sunrise and sunset, tides in 10 cities, …

The Wonderclock is a 2041 kg, 4 m high construction developed for the 1935 World Fair in Brussels. In 1938, it was shipped to New York for the 1939 World Fair. Due to the War, it returned to Lier only in 1954. The clock has 93 panels. The time of one revolution varies between an hour and 25,800 years - a variation of 8 orders of magnitude. The panel requiring 25,800 years for one turn is subdivided in 360 degrees and needs 71.66 years to move one degree, making it the slowest mechanism in the world. This panel shows the ‘general precession of the earth’s equinoxes’.

The Jubilee Clock was donated by Louis Zimmer in 1930 to his birth town. It commemorated the 100th anniversary of Belgium. The clock was built into the Cornelius tower which was quickly renamed. It consists of a central panel showing the official time in Belgium, surrounded by 12 panels:

1. Equation of time
2. Zodiac
3. Solar orb and dominical letter
4. The week
5. The terrestrial globe
6. The months
7. The dates
8. The seasons
9. Tides
10. Moon’s age
11. Phases of the moon
12. Moon’s orbit with EPACT

The astronomical studio on the first floor of the tower consists of 9 departments with 57 astronomical representations. It was finished in 1932 as a didactic display for schools, a purpose it serves until today.

Noteworthy

• Until 1940, Amsterdam operated on a special time zone UT+20’. There were 40 minutes of time difference between Amsterdam and Brussels.
• The Chinese dial, where the hands turn in the opposite direction.
• The decimal time: During the French revolution, the day was divided in 10 hours, with each hour having 100 minutes. Midday was 5 o’clock, midnight 10 o’clock. The introduction of decimal time was rather short-lived.
• Thirteen dials in the astronomical studio show the tides in various cities. There is a time delay between the passing of the moon and the beginning of high water tide, caused by depth, channels and friction of the borders. From Lisbon to Reykjavik, this time difference amounts to almost 16 hours.
• The Cotsworth calendar was developed n 1902, and proposed in 1932 to the League of Nations. It consisted of 13 months of 28 days each. The 13th month, Sol, is inserted between June and July. A 365th day is added as international Day of Peace. This calendar is a universal calendar, with your birthday falling each year on the same day of the week. We can understand the appeal of this calendar to Louis Zimmer, as it greatly simplified the required mechanical calculations compared to the Gregorian calendar.