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The imposing Porte de Hal , standing on the edge of St Gilles at the southern tip of the petit ring, is the only one of the city's seven medieval gates to have survived - the rest were knocked down by Napoleon, but this one was left untouched because it was a prison. The gate is a massive, heavily fortified affair, with towers and turrets, battlements and machicolations, and - although it was clumsily remodelled in the 1870s - it gives a good idea of the strength of the city's former defences. The interior has a couple of good-looking rooms, where the medieval features of the original edifice have survived intact, and a parapet walkway provides extensive views over the city - or at least it will do when the Porte de Hal reopens after a seemingly interminable revamp. Heading south from the gateway, down the chaussee de Waterloo , you're soon in the dishevelled heart of St Gilles, with the elaborate but distinctly dilapidated Art Nouveau houses of rue Vanderschrick running off to the right. On the first corner of this side street is the Art Nouveau cafe Porteuse d'Eau , but this is the only sign of gentrification around here, and, as an outsider, it's hard not to feel intrusive as you push on towards the soulless place de Bethleem , with its cheap and seedy restaurants. In fact, it's better to press on up the chaussee de Waterloo to the parvis de St Gilles , a chubby little square lined with handsome tenement houses that's the site of a lively fruit and vegetable market (Tues-Sun 6am-noon). From here, it's a short stroll east along rue de Jourdan to rue de l'Hotel des Monnaies where, at no. 66, you'll find Victor Horta's Hotel Winssinger . Dating from the 1890s, Horta's most creative period, the building sports a wide facade, with large ground-floor windows and a cluster of smaller windows. The front is relatively unscathed, but the interior has been badly mauled by subsequent alterations.
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