Guía de Bruselas

Grand Sablon

Grand Sablon, Place du Grand Sablon forms a sharp boundary between upper and lower town. You find the world of luxury antiquaries, chic restaurants and bars closed late in the morning. The very interesting sight of this part is the Sts-Jean-et-Etienne aux Minimes church.

A bawdyhouse stood here a long ago, and it taken a lot of time to discuss if it is acceptable to built here a church. You can see on the frontage Latin epigraph “Where used to stand a house of Venus, there is now house of Virgo.” The building quickly became a social station.

Dominates the square is the late-Gothic church Notre Dame du Sablon, famous 11 beautiful stained glass that measure 14 metres and there is especially Baroque tomb of a noble family Thurn- Taxis. The church boasts the famous statue of Virgo Marry.

Miraculous Madonna was transported from Antwerp to Brussels and its arrival reminds parade called Ommegang, which takes place in July.