Place de la Monnaie

You’ve now arrived at Place de la Monnaie, standing in front of the impressive opera house that shares its name. Both the square and the theater are named after the building that once stood here, the Hôtel de la Monnaie. This is where coins for the Duchy of Brabant were minted. It started in 1420, yet the French army destroyed it completely in 1695. When Brussels was rebuilt, a grand opera house was constructed here, one that quickly gained popularity, just like the Opera in Paris. Admittedly, it was later destroyed, rebuilt, burned down, and renovated—but what’s really fascinating is that it started the Belgian Revolution—a bit like what happened at the Bastille in France. At the time, “La Muette de Portici” was performed at the opera, telling the story of an uprising in Naples against the Spanish crown. The audience kind of compared themselves with their own struggles under Dutch rule. It didn’t take much more to ignite the flame and just goes to show how art can be a powerful weapon.