Joseph Poelaert - Life

Life

Born in Brussels to Philip Poelaert (1790–1875), a former architecture student at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Poelaert also trained there under Tilman-François Suys, and then in Paris under Louis Visconti and Jean-Nicolas Huyot.

Poelaert first came to attention with his winning competition entry for the Congress Column in 1849. He was made city architect of Brussels in 1856.

Poelaert's most significant commission was the colossal Law Courts of Brussels, the largest single building constructed in the 19th Century and even copied in smaller scale at the Palace of Justice in Peru.

During construction the inhabitants of the Marollen quarter, the working-class neighbourhood site of the Law Courts, gave Poelaert the nickname “Skieven Architect” (roughly, ‘the crooked architect’) because the long period of construction drove many inhabitants out of their houses, with the help of the local police. The nickname refers also to "chief architect" because many of the workers of the Law Courts were English. The local inhabitants corrupted "chief architect" to "skieven architect", with a totally different meaning in the Brussels dialect.

We remember here that Poelaert himself was residing in the heart of the Marolles rue des Minimes in a house adjoining his vast offices and workshops and communicating with them.

Poelaert Place, the largest square in Brussels, lies before the courts building.

He is buried in Laeken Cemetery under a miniature version of his own Palais de Justice. Poelaert was the great-uncle of Belgian architect Henri Van Dievoet.