Palace of Coudenberg

[4] The choice of this site was also undoubtedly explained by its strategic position near urbanised areas, the road leading to Leuven where their main residence was located, as well as the Sonian Forest, an important reserve for game and raw materials.

With the creation of the Duchy of Brabant in 1183 by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the Coudenberg gained in importance and was included within the first great wall built around the city.

[5] With the construction of the city's second wall following the 1356 occupation by Louis II, Count of Flanders, the castle was no longer necessary as a primary defence, and it was gradually converted from a military stronghold into a residential palace.

[5] From that time on, links were woven between the ducal house and the city; the latter took charge of some embellishment works for the palace that had become by then the dukes' principal seat of government and a leisure home.

[8][3] As art lovers, the archdukes brought to their court the best artists of the time, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens among them, to decorate the palace with their works.

[18] The first draft of the project, designed by the engineers-architects Louis-Joseph Baudour and Claude Fisco [fr][19] had planned to keep the Gothic chapel of the former palace, which had been spared by the fire.

Nowadays, on the Coudenberg, just off the south-western corner of Brussels Park, lies the Place Royale/Koningsplein, the neoclassical square built between 1775 and 1782 atop the ruins of the old palace.

[20] This square is also faced by the neoclassical Church of St. James on Coudenberg, which was designed by the architects Gilles-Barnabé Guimard and Louis Montoyer and built from 1776 to 1787.

There are a number of other notable buildings on the Coudenberg including the Court of Audit of Belgium; the Royal Chapel, built in 1760–61 with a Louis XVI-style interior; and the Palace of Charles of Lorraine.

The remains of the ancient palace and adjacent building have been extensively excavated below present ground level, and preserved with a partial concrete cover.

On the other side of the Rue Isabelle, all along its length lay the house of the influential Counts of Hoogstraeten, currently at an advanced stage of excavation, with a view to later opening to visitors, alongside the existing remains.