The “Première enceinte de Bruxelles” is French for the first walls of Brussels, wich are a series of fortifications that were built around the city and date back from the 13th Century. Along the 4 KM long walls, forty individual towers were built as defenive measures where entry within the walls was possible by seven main gates.
Location of the noticeable remains of the first walls of Brussels:
Tour Anneessens or also called Tour d’angle
Detail of the changes made on the tower over the ages can be easily noticed
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Here seen from boulevard de l’Empereur
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La courtine de Villers and the tour Saint-Jacques
Here is a long remaining section of the walls on rue de Viller.
La courtine de Villers from within the walls
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Long remaining section of the wall extra-muros can only be seen from a school yard near rue des Alexiens.
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Details of the wall
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Another angle view
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Closer look at the tour Saint-Jacques
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Some other remains of this first wall around Brussels are still visible :
– "La Tour Noire", near the Ste Catherine church
– "La Tour du pléban", behind the Ste Gudule Cathedral, in the garden of the private houyse of the Priest of the Cathedral
– A small tower in the entrance hall of a house rue des Chartreux (near St Géry), where there is a clockmaker shop
– A small portion of the wall rue de Ruysbroeck, at the bottom of the building housing the State Archives
– A large portion of the wall in the restaurant of the Hôtel SAS, rue du Fossé aux Loups. The two last examples have been rebuilt as they were, because in too bad condition to be kept in their original state.
And probably many others included in modern walls of some old houses of Brussels !
Thank you for the valuable insight. La Tour Noire I have already featured in the past but I will certainly take a look into all this.
Regards
I know it is an old post… But I found it looking around for pre-renovation pictures of Tour de Villers.
I am covering all the pieces of the wall I could find out there.
It is just a start, but I got more photos to come already 🙂
http://brusseleer.blogspot.be/2014/02/the-wall.ht…