The History of Brussels in Old Maps (Dutch)
Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, Phillippe De Maeyer, Michèle Galand, Christophe Loir, Guy Vanthemsche
Lannoo, 2025529
€49,95
This book visualizes Brussels’ thousand-year history through its most remarkable old maps. From a scale model of the medieval city on the Senne River to a map of the North-South connection that bisects the metropolis: these maps reveal how Brussels evolved over the centuries into the beating heart of Belgium and Europe.
Old maps are silent witnesses to the past. In the case of Brussels, that past is as rich as it is turbulent: the city was successively the capital of the Duchy of Brabant, the Seventeen Provinces, the Southern Netherlands, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgium, the Flemish and French Communities, and finally, the European Union. We illustrate this historical trajectory, including through an old diagram of the seven families that governed the city in the late Middle Ages and a unique map that guides the reader through the streets where the Belgian Revolution unfolded in 1830.
But history is more than just an incessant political and military power struggle. The carefully selected maps also reveal the socio-economic and cultural foundations of Brussels, highlighting themes such as religion, leisure, industry, and migration. Some maps, like that of Jacob van Deventer, have become iconic. Others are astonishing, such as a sketch of the vegetable stalls in the Grand Place and a mental map of modern-day Anderlecht.
Several maps in this book have never before been shown to the general public. For example, we found a 16th-century trial map that reveals the quarrel between townspeople, and a two-meter-long plan showing the positions of the Austrian armies for the siege of Brussels. A team of experienced historians and cartographers outlines the historical context and teaches you how to “read” the map as a window into the past. This book tells the story of a city in flux. Brussels, as a mirror of our Belgian and international history, comes to life here. IN DUTCH!
ISBN: 9789020921120
