# Exterior view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Flemish]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary The large communal building projects of towns in the Netherlands were the "halls" and town halls. The halls had a dual function as warehouses and as meeting rooms for the community. In addition, they were often also town halls in the modern sense, in other words administrative centres. As the expression of civic pride often took the widely visible form of huge towers in the Netherlands, these hall towers acquired more or less the same function as church towers and became more and more like them in appearance. There is no fundamental difference between the cathedral towers of Utrecht or Antwerp and the towers of the Bruges cloth halls or the town halls of Brussels and Arras. The main architectural problem was the same: how to create a harmonic balance between the square base and the octagonal crown. The construction of Brussels town hall was begun in 1402, along with the base of the tower. The foundation stone of the octagon was laid by Charles the Bold in 1449, work being completed in 1454. In its elegance, this secular building far outstrips contemporary religious architecture. The octagon, divided into three transparent stories, rises up unhindered between the four strong free-standing pinnacles that conclude the base and emphasizes its corners. Exceptionally for a Netherlandish tower, it is, like many of the towers on German cathedrals, topped by a tracery spire. With its rows of façade statues, its tracery windows, and, above all, in its elaborate tower, whose design was undoubtedly influenced by religious tower reliquaries, Brussels town hall comes very close to religious architecture. The photo shows the façade of the town hall. ## Related artworks - [Belfry]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()