Modelled after the so-called French royal square and built between 1775 and 1782, according to a plan of the architects Jean-Benoît-Vincent Barré and Gilles-Barnabé Guimard,[2] to replace the former Palace of Coudenberg, it was part of an urban project including Brussels Park.

The Place Royale was built on the former site of the Place des Bailles/Baliënplein, the main market square adjacent to the former Castle and then Palace of Coudenberg,[3][5] which was the residence (and seat of power) of the counts, dukes, archdukes, kings, emperors or governors who, from the 12th century to the 18th century, exerted their sovereignty over the Duchy of Brabant and later over all or part of the Burgundian and then Spanish and Austrian Netherlands.

[15] Construction of the new buildings around the square took from 1775 to 1782, using the neoclassical design of the French architects Jean-Benoît-Vincent Barré, who drafted the basic project, and Gilles-Barnabé Guimard, who received that commission in 1769 and who carried out the detailed plans.

[2] The first draft of the project, designed by the engineers-architects Louis-Joseph Baudour and Claude Fisco [fr][2] had planned to keep the Gothic chapel of the former palace, which had been spared by the fire.

This plan was modified around 1780 by the Austrian landscape architect Joachim Zinner [fr], who imagined connecting the square to the new Palace of Charles of Lorraine and Brussels Park (housing a statue of Empress Maria Theresa, which was never carried out).

[16] The new district, known today as the Royal Quarter, and designed on a structure connecting these three strategic points, also aimed to relieve congestion in this part of the city.

The former statue of Charles Alexander of Lorraine, which stood at the centre of the square, was made by the Flemish sculptor and architect Peter Anton von Verschaffelt.

Replaced during the brief Austrian restoration, this new statue was also knocked down by the French, who this time melted it down, turned it into coins, and planted a "Liberty tree" on its site.

[4] During the Belgian Revolution in 1830, a barricade was erected across the eastern exit of the square next to the current BELvue Museum, facing Brussels Park,[20] with two cannon positioned on it.

Remaining empty for several decades, from 1848, the centre of the square was once again occupied by a monument (still present today), an equestrian statue of Godfrey of Bouillon,[4] built at a time when the young Belgian State was in search of patriotic landmarks.

[17] The blue stone posts connected by iron chains that originally lined the square disappeared in the middle of the 19th century and were replaced by pavements.

[21] In 1951, the façades and porticoes lining the square were recognised for their architectural and historical interest, and were definitively protected from any modification by a classification order on the Belgian Heritage List.

Its buildings being burdened with an architectural servitude, it has undergone few changes since its creation in the 18th century: the statue of Godfrey of Bouillon has replaced that of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine and the original colonnade that enclosed it to the south was destroyed during the opening of the Rue de la Régence/Regentschapstraat in 1827.

Other major tourist attractions are located within walking distance of the square: Brussels Park, the Royal Palace, and the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula.

[4] The building lost somewhat of its typical neoclassical temple-like appearance by the addition, in the 19th century, of a dome and bell tower (after the design of the architect Tilman-François Suys), as well as a coloured fresco by the painter Jean Portaels on the pediment.