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Flanking and facing the Hotel de Ville are the guildhouses that give the Grand-Place its character, their slender, gilded facades swirling with exuberant, self-publicizing carvings and sculptures. Decorated with semicircular arches and classical motifs, scrollwork, supple bas-reliefs and statuettes, they represent the apotheosis of Italian-Flemish architecture , a melding of two stylistic traditions first introduced into the Low Countries by artists and architects returning from Italy in the early seventeenth century. Each guildhouse has a name, usually derived from one of the statues, symbols or architectural quirks decorating its facade. On the west side of the square, at the end of the row, stands no. 1: Roi d'Espagne . This particularly fine building, which was once the headquarters of the guild of bakers, is named after the bust of Charles II on the upper storey. Charles is flanked by a Moorish and a Native American prisoner, symbolic trophies of war. Balanced on the balustrade are allegorical statues of Energy, Fire, Water, Wind, Wheat and Prudence, presumably meant to represent the elements necessary for baking the ideal loaf. The guildhouse now holds the most famous of the square's bars, Le Roy d'Espagne , a surreal, though somewhat dingy, affair with animal bladders and marionettes hanging from the ceiling - and repro halberds in the toilets.
All of the cafes lining the Grand-Place charge premium rates, but the most comfortable and appealing is La Brouette , at nos. 2-3, with its tasteful repro furniture and fittings. Its first floor offers an attractive view of the square, but, like everywhere else on the Grand-Place, it's best visited early in the morning before about 10am, when the tourists arrive in force.
Nos. 2-3: Maison de la Brouette was the tallow makers' guildhouse, but it takes its name from the wheelbarrows etched into the cartouches. The figure at the top is St Gilles, the guild's patron saint. Next door, the three lower storeys of the Maison du Sac, at no. 4 , escaped the French bombardment of 1695. It was constructed for the carpenters and coopers, with the upper storeys being appropriately designed by a cabinet-maker, and featuring pilasters and caryatids which resemble the ornate legs of Baroque furniture. The Maison de la Louve, at no. 5 , also survived the French artillery, and was originally home to the influential archers' guild. The pilastered facade is studded with sanctimonious representations of concepts such as Peace and Discord, and the medallions just beneath the pediment carry the likenesses of four Roman emperors set above allegorical motifs indicating their particular attributes. Thus, Trajan is above the Sun, a symbol of Truth; Tiberius with a net and cage for Falsehood; Augustus and the globe of Peace; and Julius Caesar with a bleeding heart for Disunity. Above the door, there's a charming bas-relief of the Roman she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, while the pediment holds a relief of Apollo firing at a python; right on top the Phoenix rises from the ashes. The Maison du Cornet, at no. 6 , headquarters of the boatmen's guild, is a fanciful creation of 1697 sporting a top storey resembling the stern of a ship. Charles II makes another appearance here - it's his head in the medallion, flanked by representations of the four winds and of a pair of sailors. The house of the haberdashers' guild, the Maison du Renard at no. 7 , displays animated cherubs in bas-relief playing at haberdashery on the ground floor, while a scrawny, gilded fox - after which the house is named - squats above the door. Up on the third storey a statue of Justice proclaims the guild's honest intentions, and is flanked by statues symbolizing the four continents, suggesting the guild's designs on world markets - an aim to which St Nicolas, patron saint of merchants, glinting above, clearly gives his blessing. On the south side of the square, beside the Hotel de Ville, the arcaded Maison de l'Etoile (no.8) is a nineteenth-century rebuilding of the medieval home of the city magistrate. In the arcaded gallery, the exploits of one Everard 't Serclaes are commemorated: in 1356 the Francophile Count of Flanders attempted to seize power from the Duke of Brabant, occupying the magistrate's house and flying his standard from the roof. 'T Serclaes scaled the building, replaced Flanders' standard with that of the Duke of Brabant, and went on to lead the recapturing of the city, events represented in bas-relief above a reclining statue of 't Serclaes. His effigy is polished smooth from the long-standing superstition that good luck will come to those who stroke it - surprising really as 't Serclaes was ultimately hacked to death by the count's mates in 1388. Next door, the mansion that takes its name from the ostentatious swan on the facade, the Maison du Cygne, at no. 9 , once housed a bar where Karl Marx regularly met up with Engels during his exile in Belgium. It was in Brussels in February 1848 that they wrote the Communist Manifesto, only to be deported as political undesirables the following month. Appropriately enough, the Belgian Workers' Party was founded here in 1885, though nowadays the building shelters one of the city's more exclusive restaurants. The Maison de l'Arbre d'Or, at no. 10 , is the only house on the Grand-Place still to be owned by a guild - the brewers' - not that the equestrian figure stuck on top gives any clues: the original effigy - of one of the city's Habsburg governors - dropped off and the present statue, picturing the eighteenth-century aristocrat Charles of Lorraine, was moved here simply to fill the gap. Inside, the small and mundane Musee de la Brasserie (daily 10am-5pm; ?2.50) has various bits of brewing paraphernalia; a beer is included in the price of admission. The seven guildhouses (nos. 13-19) that fill out the east side of the Grand-Place have been subsumed within one grand edifice, the Maison des Ducs de Brabant , named after the nineteen busts of dukes of Brabant that grace the facade's pilasters. This building, perhaps more than any other on the Grand-Place, has the flavour of the aristocracy, as distinct from the bourgeoisie, and needless to say, it was much admired by the city's Habsburg governors. At no. 13 there's another museum - the Musee du Cacao et du Chocolat (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; ?5), but the exhibits are scanty and uninformative. The guildhouses and private mansions (nos. 20-39) running along the north side of the Grand-Place are not as distinguished as their neighbours, though the Maison du Pigeon (nos. 26-27) , the painters' guildhouse, is of interest as the house where Victor Hugo spent some time during his exile from France - he was expelled after the French insurrection of 1848. The house also bears four unusual masks in the manner of the green man of Romano-Celtic folklore. The adjacent Maison des Tailleurs (nos. 24-25) is appealing too; the old headquarters of the tailors' guild, it is adorned by a pious bust of St Barbara, their patron saint.
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