Under the scaffolding of the Palace of Justice - Brussels
by RicardMN Photography
Title
Under the scaffolding of the Palace of Justice - Brussels
Artist
RicardMN Photography
Medium
Photograph
Description
The Palace of Justice (French: Palais de Justice, Dutch: Justitiepaleis) or Law Courts of Brussels is the most important court building in Belgium and the largest courthouse in the world.
It was built between 1866 and 1883 in the eclectic style by the celebrated architect Joseph Poelaert. The total cost of the construction, land and furnishings was somewhere in the region of 45 million Belgian francs. It is reputed to be the largest building constructed in the 19th century. It is a notable landmark of Brussels.
In 1860, during the reign of Leopold I, a Royal decree announced the building of the Palace of Justice and an international architecture contest was organised for its design. The designs entered in the contest were found to be unacceptable and were thus rejected. The then minister of justice Tesch appointed Joseph Poelaert to design the building in 1861. The first stone was laid on October 31, 1866, and the building was inaugurated on October 15, 1883, four years after Poelaert's death in 1879.
For the building of the Palace of Justice, a section of the Marollen neighbourhood was demolished, while most of the park belonging to the House of Mérode was also expropriated. The 75 landlord owners of the houses, many of whom lived in their homes, received large indemnities, while the other inhabitants, about a hundred, were also forced to move by the Belgian government, though they were compensated with houses in the garden city "Tillens-Roosendael" in the municipality of Uccle, in the Quartier du Chat.
Poelaert himself lived in the Marollen neighbourhood in a house only a few hundred metres from the building, a house adjoining his vast offices and workshops. It is thus unlikely he saw himself as ruining the neighbourhood.
As a result of the forced relocation of so many people, the word architect became one of the most serious insults in Brussels.
The Palace's location is on the Galgenberg hill, where in the Middle Ages convicted criminals were hanged.
The building includes huge interior statues of Demosthenes and Lycurgus, by sculptor Pierre Armand Cattier, and figures of Roman jurists Cicero and Ulpian, by Antoine-Félix Bouré. Although the construction took place during the reign of Leopold II, he showed little interest in the building, and it's not considered part of his extensive architectural program in Brussels or his legacy as the "Builder-King".
The Brussels Palace of Justice is bigger than St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The building is currently 160 by 150 meters, and has a total built ground surface of 26,000 m2. The 104 meter high dome weighs 24,000 tons. The building has 8 courtyards with a surface of 6000 m2, 27 large court rooms and 245 smaller court rooms and other rooms. (Description form Wikipedia)
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February 3rd, 2017
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Comments (7)
Luther Fine Art
Congratulations! Your fantastic photographic art has been chosen as a Camera Art Group feature! You are invited to archive your work in the feature archive discussion. There are many other discussions in the group where you can promote your art even further more.
Jan Mulherin
Congratulations!! This stunning Black and White image has been selected to be featured for the week in the "Creative Black and White Fine Art Photographs" Group’s Home Page!! You are welcome to add a preview of this featured image to the group’s discussion post titled “2018 June - Stunning Group Featured Images and Thank-you’s” for a permanent display within the group, to share this achievement with others. If enabled, your image will also be posted to our group Google+ page. Thank you for your group participation! ~Jan
Kelley Freel-Ebner
Congratulations! Your extraordinary work has been Featured in the Fine Art America group “Black and White – The Art Form”! You are invited to archive your featured image for permanent storage and for viewing on the Discussions Page in: “2018 Member's Extraordinary Features Images Archive 2.0!” theme. Simply copy your image’s Embed URL on your image’s profile page, and paste it into the Discussion Topic site https://fineartamerica.com/groups/black-and-white--the-art-form.html?showmessage=true&messageid=4138625