De Brouckère Square was laid out following the covering of the Senne, as part of the major urban works by architect Léon Suys under the tenure of then-mayor of the City of Brussels, Jules Anspach. It took the place of the former Augustinian church. This church, built at the beginning of the 17th century in the Baroque style, was the only remaining part of a convent destroyed in 1796 by French revolutionaries. The work to cover the river, which nearly surrounded the church, preserved the integrity of the building at great trouble and expense, but it was finally demolished in 1893, its style no longer popular with the people and its presence unsuitable for the area. Its facade, however, was preserved, being disassembled and moved to serve for the Church of the Holy Trinity in the municipality of Ixelles. In the centre of the square, left empty by the destruction of the church, a fountain-obelisk dedicated to the memory of Jules Anspach was erected. Inaugurated in 1897, the Anspach Fountain was removed in 1973 to make room for access to the metro station. The authorities had promised to put it back in place after the works, but it was eventually reinstalled in May 1981 in a basin that occupies the space between the Quai aux Briques/Baksteenkaai and the Quai au Bois à Brûler/Brandhoutkaai in the Sainte-Catherine/Sint Katelijne neighbourhood. Since 29 June 2015, the square has been partially pedestrianised, as part of a large pedestrian zone in the centre of Brussels.
Places of interest
De Brouckère Square is dominated by fin de siècle buildings, but modern colossi have also risen on its southern side since the 1960s. The focal point is the Hotel Continental by the architect Eugène Carpentier, well known to people of Brussels because of the large luminous Coca-Cola sign on its roof. This roof was considerably simplified following the fire that ravaged the building in 1901. The square is home to the Hotel Metropole, where the first Solvay Conference on Physics and on Chemistry was held in the autumn of 1911. On the opposite side stands the former Eldorado cinema, now the UGC De Brouckère, with its Grand Room featuring African-themed Art Deco motifs by the architect Marcel Chabot. On the south-eastern side of the square are two covered shopping galleries: the Anspach Center and the Mint Center.
