Covering of The Senne - The New Central Boulevards

The New Central Boulevards

The series of boulevards created by the project – Hainaut Boulevard (now Maurice Lemonnier Boulevard), Central Boulevard (now Boulevard Anspach), North Boulevard (now Adolphe Max Boulevard), and Senne Boulevard (now Émile Jacqmain Boulevard) – were progressively opened to traffic from 1871 to 1873.

The opening of these new routes offered a more efficient way to get into the lower town than the cramped streets of rue du Midi/Zuidstraat, rue des Fripiers/Kleerkopersstraat and rue Neuve and helped revitalize the lower quarters of the town. In order to accomplish this revitalization and attract investment, public buildings were constructed as part of the Léon Suys project including the Brussels Stock Exchange. The vast Halles Centrales/Centrale Hallen, a good example of metallic architecture, replaced unhygienic open-air markets, though it was torn down in 1958. The monumental fountain that was to break the monotony of the boulevards at Fontainas Square was abandoned for budgetary reasons.

The construction of private buildings on the boulevards and surrounding areas took place later. The middle class continued to prefer living in new suburbs rather than the cramped areas of the city center. The high prices of the land (expected to finance part of the construction costs) and the high rents were not within the means of the lower classes. Life in apartments was no longer desirable for residents of Brussels, who preferred to live in single family homes. The buildings constructed by private citizens had difficulty finding buyers.

To give builders an incentive to create elaborate and appealing facades on their works, an architecture competition was arranged in which twenty buildings built before January 1, 1876 would win prizes. The first prize of 20,000 francs was awarded to Henri Beyaert who designed the "Hier ist in den kater en de kat" (Loosely, "House of Cats") on North Boulevard. Nonetheless, it took another 20 years, until 1895, for buildings to solidly line the boulevards.

The former Augustinian church, built at the beginning of the 17th century in the baroque style, was the only remaining part of a convent destroyed in 1796 by French revolutionaries. After having been used as a Protestant church from 1815 to 1830, it subsequently saw use as a concert hall, a commercial exchange, and a post office. At the center of de Brouckère square, the church’s façade was intended by Léon Suys to be one of the focal points of the new boulevards. The work to cover the river, which nearly surrounded the church, preserved the integrity of the building at great trouble and expense, but the church was finally demolished in 1893, its style no longer popular with the people and its presence unsuitable for the area. The church was replaced by a fountain dedicated to the memory of Jules Anspach. The facade of the church, however, was preserved, being disassembled and moved to serve as the façade for the St. Trinity Church in the suburb Ixelles .