historic.brussels' photostream  

Photo of Google internet political censorship live in a screen shot. Here for the world to see, is this photo capture of real-time political censorship of the European internet by Google Inc., as Google intentionally suppresses search results of political articles and journalism in late August 2011. You see here an actual photo of Google in action, under direct orders of Google Europe German boss Philipp Schindler, 'just following orders' of Google top officials Eric Schmidt and Google founder Larry Page ... As Google censors search to deceive European Union authorities in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg, the EU Commission, the EU Parliament, the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the governments of Belgium and all other European countries, and 500 million European citizens ... nearly all of whom do not realise they are victims of Google Inc censoring and blocking websites, with Google erasing the truth in the 'Google gas chambers'.

You see here the actual photo image of censorship, with Google computers spinning furiously, and blocking no less than 19 - nineteen! - search results from page one of an internet search on a topic, with small notes at the bottom of the search page in English, notes that most people never see or read, indicating that the 19 sites have been censored.

At the same time that Google censors 19 results on page 1 of a politically-related search, as shown here, Google artificially pumps up to the top of the search rankings, several articles that tell lies and spread hoaxes about the object of the search (typically including Google's old CIA partner, the equally CIA-backed Wikipedia ('wiki' is short for 'wicked people can dominate this'), while Google bans and blocks articles that tell the truth about the topic in question.

Why does Google Inc. censor search results so as to mislead and deceive the officials of the European Union, and European companies and businesses? Of course, in order to please American political figures, the CIA and the American government. For those who might desire the deep background of Google Inc as an internet censorship company erasing the truth from world readers, a good place to start would be the article by Paul Joseph Watson on Alex Jones' Prison Planet site, 'Ex-Agent: CIA Seed Money Helped Launch Google', 6 December 2006, interviewing retired intelligence agent Robert David Steele, and speaking of the CIA's Dr Rick Steinheiser and his connections with Google.

In the Google political censorship above, what is being censored is the journalism on all the websites of the man who used to be the perhaps leading journalist on US court corruption, before Google moved to 'erase' him and the truth about what America did to him. Google is blocking websites with articles such as 'America's Corrupt Legal System - Danger to Travellers and Visitors', 'Foreign Companies Face US Court Corruption: Doing Business in the Big Bribery Nation', 'Americans Murdering Their Judges', 'The CIA and Wikipedia' ... articles authored by a populist dissident journalist who barely escaped out of the US alive, your host here, Dr Leslie Sachs (Les, Leszek Sachs).

Many people are under an illusion that Google supports 'internet freedom', and Google executives no doubt enjoy a royally good laugh over this. The 'internet freedom' or 'net neutrality' story is just a smirking game Google plays to benefit the USA, to help the US criticise China or others.

Google only supports 'internet freedom' against countries and people that are targeted by America. In reality, Google is the most powerful weapon ever, to erase the truth, erase history, and erase the past from human memory, and this image here pictures Google doing it. Google fully supports censorship by the US against Europe, against EU governments, EU businesses, EU journalists, and EU people ... and Google Inc has the perfect way to hide the censorship, because most of Europe is using Google for search!

You will notice in this live photo capture of Google censorship at work, that there is a link given to 'ChillingEffects.org' to provide more information:

« In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed xx result(s) from this page. If youwish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org. »

But, very often, the 'ChillingEffects.org' link turns out to be blank, with no information about the censorship.

Google speaks of receiving 'Legal Requests' to censor and block websites from search results, motivating Google to block political journalism and to help publish and spread lies about topics, when America wishes to spread those lies. These 'legal requests' sufficient for Google to block political journalism, are of course from the country Google is trying to please, the USA, for which Google fully supports the banning of freedom and censorship, whenever rubber-stamped by any federal (national) United States judge, however drunk or criminal.

Google cares zero about how such a 'legal request' is obtained, and Google is perfectly fine with 'requests' from US judges who have a reputation for bribery and corruption, who are followers of Adolf Hitler, or who are drunks getting bags of bribery cash from friends of US Senators or other US political leaders. Google fully supports 'legal requests' by American judges against citizens of Europe, who are threatened with jail or murder if they show up in America to speak up for themselves. Google accepts 'legal requests' as a result of extortion, perjury, court fraud, even genocidal threats to kill people ... any crime is OK to start Google Inc censoring the internet in Europe, so long as it is signed by some judge in the USA, any gangster with a US judge rubber-stamper will do. The US is the one country in the world to whom Google gives this censorship privilege without complaint, and Google manages it so carefully that most people don't even know it happens.

In non-English languages, when Google has the censorship machine running, often there is no note at all at the bottom of the page about Google censorship, Google simply completes its political censorship and erasure of websites, altogether invisibly, and the readers do not realise they are being managed by a close partner of the CIA.

It should be noted as well, that US judges are able to give Google orders that are 'secret', with Google itself ordered to keep quiet about having received a censorship order. US judges may order Google just to lower a website's search ranking, instead of erasing it completely, and such a secret order by American judges, targeting European companies or journalists, might never ever be disclosed ... after all, like Google's central Europe boss, the German Philipp Schindler will tell you, he is "just following orders" ... where have we heard that before?

These are photos documenting my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me.

Brussels is a wonderful city with a great history, one of the most delightful capitals of the world in which to live. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well.

(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists "About Les Sachs" linked in my profile, press articles such as "Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs"; and the recent report by Non-Zionist Jews Defence, 'Report to the EU Parliament and the Commission of the European Union; Crimes to Erase EU Journalism, to Slander and Murder EU - Polish Citizen, Writer, Journalist, & Non-Zionist Jew, Dr Les Sachs - Dr Leszek Sachs - Dr Leslie Raymond Sachs'. Links in the 'profile' section of this photo collection.)

Thank you very much - hartelijk dank - merci beaucoup - vielen Dank - to all the people around the world, who have now honoured this photo collection of Historic Brussels - Bruxelles Historique - Historisch Brussel - with a full 125,000, or one-eighth of a million views, as of 20 August 2011.

What began as a casual collection of photos I was taking in my daily life around Brussels, with a Sagem camera-phone that had been given to me, has now become of the world-leading websites of photos of some of the historical monuments, places and buildings of my wonderful home city in Belgium, the capital of the Kingdom which has saved my life, thanks in part to the timely intervention of members of the royal house of the King of the Belgians Albert II, which has prevented my political assassination.

The most important photos on this site, to me, are my photo-journalism of the graves and photos of the fallen resistance heroes of Belgium at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden - Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot. The quality of those photos is due in part to the gift of an Olympus digital camera from one of the bravest Jewish physicians of the United States, another man who risked his life to confront the American regime, who is now in mortal danger. - May G-d protect you, my brave fellow Jew of Resistance to the Powers That Be.

Some of the other extremely popular photos at this Historic.Brussels site, are from another burial place of fallen Belgian heroes, at the Martyrs' Square - Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats, Brussels, Belgium. My photo of the 'Angel & National Flag of Belgium' there, a picture of a lovely sculptured angel and the Belgian tri-coloured flag of black, yellow and red waving in the background, has become so popular around the globe, this photo is being used as a symbol of Belgium itself, in articles by economists and such.

For some reason, the most popular photos of all in this collection are the photos of the sculpture of the twin female nude women embracing, that stands in front of the second-tallest building here, the Tour des Finances - Financiëntoren - Finance Tower of Brussels. Why are photos of sculptures of undressed females in the centre of Brussels, so popular? Hmm.

Thanks to everyone for looking and sharing at this photo set which will be continually expanded. All these Historic Brussels photos are available for free sharing and free re-publishing under the maximally-open Flickr Creative Commons licence.

These are photos documenting my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me.

Brussels is a wonderful city with a great history, one of the most delightful capitals of the world in which to live. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well.

(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists "About Les Sachs" linked in my profile, press articles such as "Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs"; and the recent report by Non-Zionist Jews Defence, 'Report to the EU Parliament and the Commission of the European Union; Crimes to Erase EU Journalism, to Slander and Murder EU - Polish Citizen, Writer, Journalist, & Non-Zionist Jew, Dr Les Sachs - Dr Leszek Sachs - Dr Leslie Raymond Sachs'. Links in the 'profile' section of this photo collection.)

A brief history of Belgium, and the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats (Martyrs' Square) in that history -

Among the most moving places to visit in the capital of Belgium, is Martyrs' Square in Brussels, where over 400 heroes of the Belgian Revolution of 1830 lie buried in a crypt beneath the cobblestones. This square is usually known by its French name, La Place des Martyrs, or also by its Dutch name, De Martelaarsplaats. Many of the dead here lie not far from where they were shot, in fierce battles amid the Brussels streets and barricades.

A wonderful monument here honours these heroes who died for the cause of freedom, in the brief 1830-31 revolutionary war that created the Belgian nation.

Particularly extraordinary and moving at the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats, are four beautiful sculptures of angels, with the angels´ faces in touchingly eternal expressions of mourning for the brave ones who gave their lives for the freedom of others.

These are photos from the daily life of writer, journalist and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs - I am someone who also has nearly died fighting for freedom for others.

These Flickr photos document my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well. I'm happy to help convey to the world some of Brussels' wonderful cultural heritage.

(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists 'About Les Sachs' linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as 'Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs'.)

The Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats remains a place where today's Belgians continue to remember and honour the heroes who died for them. Some weeks before the earlier group of these pictures were taken, on one rainy morning, I stood at the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats in the pouring rain, with a small group of Belgians in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, a number of them frail and supporting themselves unsteadily with canes on the uneven cobblestone surface, while a brass band was playing patriotic music. Though the rain was pouring down heavily on the Place des Martyrs, these elderly Belgians did not mind getting drenched, whatever the risk to their health, because these good people were children when the Nazis occupied Belgium, and that rainy day was a day to remember the Belgians who died fighting the fascist occupiers.

Quick sketch of the history of Belgium, and the historical role of Martyrs' Square -

The history of Belgium is not easy to outline. Belgium is today a nation with three official languages, reflecting its two large language groups of French and Dutch speakers, along with a small area whose native language is German. The Romans and Julius Caesar were in the neighbourhood over 2000 years ago, and Caesar wrote of fighting some fierce tribes here called the "Belgae", from whom the nation takes its name.

In fact, Julius Caesar referred to the Belgians or 'Belgae', in the very first sentence of his most famous book, 'De Bello Gallico', his commentary on the 'Gallic Wars': « Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae ... » « The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts, in one of which live the Belgians ... »

As the Roman Empire fell apart, the Belgian region was home to the Merovingian kings in the early "dark ages", and then was part of the empire of Charlemagne. Under Charlemagne's grandson Lothair and great-grandson King Lothair II, the area of current Belgium was part of a kingdom of 'Lotharingia' whose name we know today as the French 'Lorraine'. This kingdom rapidly divided among royal heirs, with 'Upper Lorraine' roughly inside what is now France, and Brussels becoming the capital of a 'Duchy of Lower Lorraine' - roughly today's Low Countries - when a castle was built in Brussels' old centre around the year 979.

Borders and regional identity continued to change quickly in the centuries after Charlemagne, the "high middle ages". What was 'Lower Lorraine' gave way to several of the great mediaeval territories and dukedoms spreading across differing sections of what is now Belgium, with names we still hear today: Flanders, Brabant, Luxembourg. And various smaller territories and fiefdoms were also a part here, amid the ever-shifting landscape of mediaeval and feudal Europe.

The middle part of Belgium, including Brussels, was the historic territory of Brabant, and the Dukes of Brabant, about the year 1100, built premises right at what is known today in Brussels as the Royal Square - Place Royale - Kongingsplaats.

Brabant and much of Belgium then came to be part of the great late-mediaeval dukedom of Burgundy, which reached the height of influence in the 1400s with Brussels as the Burgundian capital along with Dijon. At its height, Burgundy was regarded by many as the richest court in all Europe. Today's independent Belgium is thus a remnant of that long-ago much larger Renaissance realm of Burgundy, as well as of the even more ancient kingdom of mediaeval Lotharingia.

The area of today's Belgium kept its leading role in Europe in the early 1500s, as Burgundy in turn was enveloped into the Holy Roman Empire at its height. The towns of Belgium gave birth and upbringing to the Emperor Charles V, who at one point ruled most of Europe from Brussels. So, about 500 years ago, Brussels was already the 'centre' of Europe.

After Charles, his empire began to break apart, and the territory of today's Belgium had a succession of foreign rulers from within Charles V's widely-flung Habsburg family: First the Spanish, who kept hold of the territory we now call Belgium, while the Dutch to the north broke away during the Protestant Reformation. After the 'War of the Spanish Succession', the Habsburg territories were further divided, with Belgium going under Austrian control from 1714 onwards.

It was under the Austrians, in the late 1700s, that elegant buildings began to be built around a large square which was named the Place Saint-Michel, or Saint Michael's Square. This would later become Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats that you see here.

The beginning of the end of Austrian rule, and the beginning of the story of modern independent Belgium, was the 'Brabantine Revolution' (Révolution Brabançonne - Brabantse Revolutie), whereby in 1789 much of what is now Belgium, asserted its full independence from its then-rulers, the Habsburg emperors of Austria.

In sympathy and parallel with the epoch-changing revolution of 1789 in next-door France, the rebellious provinces of 'Austrian Netherlands' also went into rebellion that same year, and declared the deposition of the Austrian Habsburg Emperor, and the creation of the 'United Belgian States' (États-Belgiques-Unis - Verenigde Belgische Staten), which endured only briefly in 1789-1790. The 'Belgian' name came from the Latin word used by Julius Caesar to identify the fierce fighting tribes who inhabited this region in Caesar's day, the 'Belgae'.

In 1789, the seals of the document declaring the 'United Belgian States' to be 'free' and 'independent', were ornamented by silken tassels of black, yellow and red. The flag of the short-lived Belgian nation of 1789-90, then used these three colours, though in horizontal stripes and in a different order than the current vertically-striped Belgian flag.

The Austrians were able to briefly re-assert control of Belgium in 1790, then lost it to French control in 1792, and won it back one final time in 1793-94. The French then retained control, annexing most of what is now Belgium into France in 1795. As the Napoleonic era ended, Belgium was separated from France in 1814-1815.

As Napoléon was being defeated and his Empire terminated, the European nations meeting at the Council of Vienna of 1814-15, thought that the territories north of France, including modern Belgium and Luxembourg, should all be under the Dutch monarch, creating a single large buffer state between France and England.

The European powers meeting in Vienna avoided what might have seemed a more logical idea, of uniting only Dutch-speaking regions with the Netherlands, while letting the French-speaking regions of Wallonia remain united with France. The powers of 1815 did not want to reward France with territorial expansion to the north, precisely in the area around where Napoléon met his final defeat at Waterloo.

But the Vienna plan of shoving the French-speakers of Wallonia into a new Dutch monarchy, and expanding the Dutch nation and doubling its size, proved to be very unstable. The Dutch of the Netherlands were predominantly Protestant, while the southern populations, including the Dutch-speakers of Flanders, were predominantly Roman Catholic. And not only did the Catholic territories have large numbers of French speakers, the people in Flanders also speak a modestly different Dutch than in the Netherlands, which led them to chafe against the Dutch monarchy in sympathy with their French-speaking neighbours.

Tensions grew until an August, 1830 performance at the Brussels opera house, where political rebellion portrayed on the stage, became a catalyst for rebellion in the streets.

In September of 1830 the street rebellions became a full-blown revolution for Belgian independence. The Place Saint-Michel, Saint Michael's Square, a few hundred metres from the opera house where the fuse for revolution had been lit, became a key site for the declaration of Belgian liberty and independence, and a pivotal site in the fierce and deadly street battles. The central days of the revolution in September 1830 - the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th - are the dates inscribed upon the tablet held by the high figure in the monument that you see in the photos, representing the angel or goddess of the Belgian home nation (Latin 'patria'), with a lion by her side.

In 1830, with the hundreds of dead from the revolutionary battles, the decision was made to bury them there at the square, which now became the Square of the Martyrs of Freedom.

The revolution was quickly successful. Some battles continued to take place into 1831, as the Dutch made a last try to hold onto the Belgian territory, but the separation of Belgium and Luxembourg was speedily recognised and secured by the other European powers.

The Revolution of 1830 enabled Belgium to finally fulfil the dreams of the Belgian revolutionaries of 1789. The current Belgian tri-colour flag was established in 1831, using the 1789 colours of the 'Brabantine Revolution'. Belgium became a nation and even acquired a king of its own, the Protestant German Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who agreed to marry the Catholic daughter of the French monarch, and raise their children as French-speaking Roman Catholics, while he became the first hereditary King of the Belgians.

And today, the political refugee Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs, may owe the saving of his life in the face of the threats to murder him, to protection extended from the royal household of the King of the Belgians, the descendant of that first Belgian monarch.

Léopold I, who was born in 1790, reigned in Belgium until 1865. Early in his reign, he supervised the building of this monument at Martyrs' Square. In one of the photos of the angels by the monument, you see between two angels the large plaque with the text in Latin. Two dates are given. The first is that of the declaration of the nation's identity, on the 25th of September 1830, a date closely tied to the death of the martyrs buried in the crypt below. The second date, the 25th of September 1840, is the date of the completion and dedication of the main part of the monument, with the final line noting that this took place under Léopold I as the reigning monarch.

Though the main monument structure was indeed completed and dedicated in 1840, the lovely and magnificent angels were added some years later, in 1848. Today, it is these sculptured angels which, above all, give Martyrs' Square its high character of deep emotion and magnificence.

The buildings around the square have, over the centuries, partially fallen into a difficult state, and you see one of the buildings undergoing inside-out comprehensive renovation in the photos. The overall revival and restoration of Martyrs' Square has been given a major boost, however, by the government of Belgium's majority Flemish-speaking region.

Belgium today is about 60 per cent Dutch-speaking, with most of the remainder French-speakers along with a few native German-speakers. Brussels itself is officially bi-lingual, and historically was predominantly a Dutch-speaking city through the centuries, from the mediaeval and Renaissance era down to early modern times. However, this changed in the 1800s, and Brussels today is at least 70 per cent French-speaking, with many of the rest of Brussels residents foreign-born rather than Dutch-speaking.

Yet, in one of the many curious paradoxes of Belgium's governmental arrangements, the predominantly French-speaking Brussels remains the 'capital' of the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, while the French language community of Belgium has its capital in the provincial city of Namur.

Thus today, the Martelaarsplaats - Place des Martyrs, is the site of major national offices of Dutch-speaking Flanders. The Flemish government holds the two major buildings facing each other across the longer distance of the square, and the one you see in the photos in close-up with the three flags over the doorway (the EU flag, the Belgian flag, and the predominantly yellow Flemish flag) is actually the 'Kabinet van de Minister-President' of the 'Vlaamse Regering', or the 'Office of the Minister-President' (Prime Minister) of the Flemish government.

In front of the office of the Flemish Prime Minister, is a monument built in 1897 and dedicated to one of the particular martyrs of the Revolution, Jenneval. 'Jenneval' was the stage name of Louis Alexandre Hippolyte Dechez, as 'Jenneval' a well-known actor, who died from wounds in battle in October 1830. But some weeks before his death, Jenneval penned some of the original words to the Belgian national anthem, the Brabançonne. This monument to Jenneval was dedicated in 1897, on September 25th, precisely amid the 67th anniversary of the 1830 Belgian revolution for independence.

The inscriptions on the Jenneval monument are in both Dutch and French on opposite sides of it, though the French inscription is extremely weather-worn and hard to read. The inscriptions are:

Aan Jenneval
Dichter der Brabançonne
Gesneuveld voor 's lands
Onafhankelijkheid
Hulde der stad Brussel
25 september 1897

À Jenneval
Poète de la Brabançonne
Mort pour l'indépendance
Nationale
Hommage de la ville
de Bruxelles
25 septembre 1897

To Jenneval
Poet of the Brabançonne
Slain for his country's / the nation's independence
A tribute of the city of Brussels
25 September 1897

On the far opposite side of the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats, in front of the other Flemish government building here, is a monument to another hero of the Belgian Revolution, Comte (Count) Frédéric de Mérode, who was mortally wounded in battle in October 1830 and died a few days later in early November. His brother, Count Félix de Mérode, was a major figure in the Belgian provisional government in the weeks of revolution.

The Mérode monument also carries inscriptions on opposite sides in both French and Dutch:

À
Frédéric de Mérode
Mort pour l'indépendance
De la patrie

Aan
Frederic de Merode
Gestorven voor de
Onafhankelijkheid
van het vaderland

To
Frédéric de Mérode
Who died for the independence
Of our home country

The map with this Flickr photo set will show you how to walk to the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats. It is a few minutes' walk from either the De Brouckère or Rogier métro stations, via the popular rue Neuve - Nieuwstraat shopping promenade that runs between De Brouckère and Rogier. As you walk along the rue Neuve - Nieuwstraat, you see it visible a very few metres to the east along one of the intersections, at the Rue Saint-Michel - Sint-Michielsstraat, with the central monument of the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats clearly visible.

A brief history of Belgium, and the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats (Martyrs' Square) in that history -

Among the most moving places to visit in the capital of Belgium, is Martyrs' Square in Brussels, where over 400 heroes of the Belgian Revolution of 1830 lie buried in a crypt beneath the cobblestones. This square is usually known by its French name, La Place des Martyrs, or also by its Dutch name, De Martelaarsplaats. Many of the dead here lie not far from where they were shot, in fierce battles amid the Brussels streets and barricades.

A wonderful monument here honours these heroes who died for the cause of freedom, in the brief 1830-31 revolutionary war that created the Belgian nation.

Particularly extraordinary and moving at the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats, are four beautiful sculptures of angels, with the angels´ faces in touchingly eternal expressions of mourning for the brave ones who gave their lives for the freedom of others.

These are photos from the daily life of writer, journalist and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs - I am someone who also has nearly died fighting for freedom for others.

These Flickr photos document my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well. I'm happy to help convey to the world some of Brussels' wonderful cultural heritage.

(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists 'About Les Sachs' linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as 'Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs'.)

The Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats remains a place where today's Belgians continue to remember and honour the heroes who died for them. Some weeks before the earlier group of these pictures were taken, on one rainy morning, I stood at the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats in the pouring rain, with a small group of Belgians in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, a number of them frail and supporting themselves unsteadily with canes on the uneven cobblestone surface, while a brass band was playing patriotic music. Though the rain was pouring down heavily on the Place des Martyrs, these elderly Belgians did not mind getting drenched, whatever the risk to their health, because these good people were children when the Nazis occupied Belgium, and that rainy day was a day to remember the Belgians who died fighting the fascist occupiers.

Quick sketch of the history of Belgium, and the historical role of Martyrs' Square -

The history of Belgium is not easy to outline. Belgium is today a nation with three official languages, reflecting its two large language groups of French and Dutch speakers, along with a small area whose native language is German. The Romans and Julius Caesar were in the neighbourhood over 2000 years ago, and Caesar wrote of fighting some fierce tribes here called the "Belgae", from whom the nation takes its name.

In fact, Julius Caesar referred to the Belgians or 'Belgae', in the very first sentence of his most famous book, 'De Bello Gallico', his commentary on the 'Gallic Wars': « Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae ... » « The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts, in one of which live the Belgians ... »

As the Roman Empire fell apart, the Belgian region was home to the Merovingian kings in the early "dark ages", and then was part of the empire of Charlemagne. Under Charlemagne's grandson Lothair and great-grandson King Lothair II, the area of current Belgium was part of a kingdom of 'Lotharingia' whose name we know today as the French 'Lorraine'. This kingdom rapidly divided among royal heirs, with 'Upper Lorraine' roughly inside what is now France, and Brussels becoming the capital of a 'Duchy of Lower Lorraine' - roughly today's Low Countries - when a castle was built in Brussels' old centre around the year 979.

Borders and regional identity continued to change quickly in the centuries after Charlemagne, the "high middle ages". What was 'Lower Lorraine' gave way to several of the great mediaeval territories and dukedoms spreading across differing sections of what is now Belgium, with names we still hear today: Flanders, Brabant, Luxembourg. And various smaller territories and fiefdoms were also a part here, amid the ever-shifting landscape of mediaeval and feudal Europe.

The middle part of Belgium, including Brussels, was the historic territory of Brabant, and the Dukes of Brabant, about the year 1100, built premises right at what is known today in Brussels as the Royal Square - Place Royale - Kongingsplaats.

Brabant and much of Belgium then came to be part of the great late-mediaeval dukedom of Burgundy, which reached the height of influence in the 1400s with Brussels as the Burgundian capital along with Dijon. At its height, Burgundy was regarded by many as the richest court in all Europe. Today's independent Belgium is thus a remnant of that long-ago much larger Renaissance realm of Burgundy, as well as of the even more ancient kingdom of mediaeval Lotharingia.

The area of today's Belgium kept its leading role in Europe in the early 1500s, as Burgundy in turn was enveloped into the Holy Roman Empire at its height. The towns of Belgium gave birth and upbringing to the Emperor Charles V, who at one point ruled most of Europe from Brussels. So, about 500 years ago, Brussels was already the 'centre' of Europe.

After Charles, his empire began to break apart, and the territory of today's Belgium had a succession of foreign rulers from within Charles V's widely-flung Habsburg family: First the Spanish, who kept hold of the territory we now call Belgium, while the Dutch to the north broke away during the Protestant Reformation. After the 'War of the Spanish Succession', the Habsburg territories were further divided, with Belgium going under Austrian control from 1714 onwards.

It was under the Austrians, in the late 1700s, that elegant buildings began to be built around a large square which was named the Place Saint-Michel, or Saint Michael's Square. This would later become Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats that you see here.

The beginning of the end of Austrian rule, and the beginning of the story of modern independent Belgium, was the 'Brabantine Revolution' (Révolution Brabançonne - Brabantse Revolutie), whereby in 1789 much of what is now Belgium, asserted its full independence from its then-rulers, the Habsburg emperors of Austria.

In sympathy and parallel with the epoch-changing revolution of 1789 in next-door France, the rebellious provinces of 'Austrian Netherlands' also went into rebellion that same year, and declared the deposition of the Austrian Habsburg Emperor, and the creation of the 'United Belgian States' (États-Belgiques-Unis - Verenigde Belgische Staten), which endured only briefly in 1789-1790. The 'Belgian' name came from the Latin word used by Julius Caesar to identify the fierce fighting tribes who inhabited this region in Caesar's day, the 'Belgae'.

In 1789, the seals of the document declaring the 'United Belgian States' to be 'free' and 'independent', were ornamented by silken tassels of black, yellow and red. The flag of the short-lived Belgian nation of 1789-90, then used these three colours, though in horizontal stripes and in a different order than the current vertically-striped Belgian flag.

The Austrians were able to briefly re-assert control of Belgium in 1790, then lost it to French control in 1792, and won it back one final time in 1793-94. The French then retained control, annexing most of what is now Belgium into France in 1795. As the Napoleonic era ended, Belgium was separated from France in 1814-1815.

As Napoléon was being defeated and his Empire terminated, the European nations meeting at the Council of Vienna of 1814-15, thought that the territories north of France, including modern Belgium and Luxembourg, should all be under the Dutch monarch, creating a single large buffer state between France and England.

The European powers meeting in Vienna avoided what might have seemed a more logical idea, of uniting only Dutch-speaking regions with the Netherlands, while letting the French-speaking regions of Wallonia remain united with France. The powers of 1815 did not want to reward France with territorial expansion to the north, precisely in the area around where Napoléon met his final defeat at Waterloo.

But the Vienna plan of shoving the French-speakers of Wallonia into a new Dutch monarchy, and expanding the Dutch nation and doubling its size, proved to be very unstable. The Dutch of the Netherlands were predominantly Protestant, while the southern populations, including the Dutch-speakers of Flanders, were predominantly Roman Catholic. And not only did the Catholic territories have large numbers of French speakers, the people in Flanders also speak a modestly different Dutch than in the Netherlands, which led them to chafe against the Dutch monarchy in sympathy with their French-speaking neighbours.

Tensions grew until an August, 1830 performance at the Brussels opera house, where political rebellion portrayed on the stage, became a catalyst for rebellion in the streets.

In September of 1830 the street rebellions became a full-blown revolution for Belgian independence. The Place Saint-Michel, Saint Michael's Square, a few hundred metres from the opera house where the fuse for revolution had been lit, became a key site for the declaration of Belgian liberty and independence, and a pivotal site in the fierce and deadly street battles. The central days of the revolution in September 1830 - the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th - are the dates inscribed upon the tablet held by the high figure in the monument that you see in the photos, representing the angel or goddess of the Belgian home nation (Latin 'patria'), with a lion by her side.

In 1830, with the hundreds of dead from the revolutionary battles, the decision was made to bury them there at the square, which now became the Square of the Martyrs of Freedom.

The revolution was quickly successful. Some battles continued to take place into 1831, as the Dutch made a last try to hold onto the Belgian territory, but the separation of Belgium and Luxembourg was speedily recognised and secured by the other European powers.

The Revolution of 1830 enabled Belgium to finally fulfil the dreams of the Belgian revolutionaries of 1789. The current Belgian tri-colour flag was established in 1831, using the 1789 colours of the 'Brabantine Revolution'. Belgium became a nation and even acquired a king of its own, the Protestant German Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who agreed to marry the Catholic daughter of the French monarch, and raise their children as French-speaking Roman Catholics, while he became the first hereditary King of the Belgians.

And today, the political refugee Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs, may owe the saving of his life in the face of the threats to murder him, to protection extended from the royal household of the King of the Belgians, the descendant of that first Belgian monarch.

Léopold I, who was born in 1790, reigned in Belgium until 1865. Early in his reign, he supervised the building of this monument at Martyrs' Square. In one of the photos of the angels by the monument, you see between two angels the large plaque with the text in Latin. Two dates are given. The first is that of the declaration of the nation's identity, on the 25th of September 1830, a date closely tied to the death of the martyrs buried in the crypt below. The second date, the 25th of September 1840, is the date of the completion and dedication of the main part of the monument, with the final line noting that this took place under Léopold I as the reigning monarch.

Though the main monument structure was indeed completed and dedicated in 1840, the lovely and magnificent angels were added some years later, in 1848. Today, it is these sculptured angels which, above all, give Martyrs' Square its high character of deep emotion and magnificence.

The buildings around the square have, over the centuries, partially fallen into a difficult state, and you see one of the buildings undergoing inside-out comprehensive renovation in the photos. The overall revival and restoration of Martyrs' Square has been given a major boost, however, by the government of Belgium's majority Flemish-speaking region.

Belgium today is about 60 per cent Dutch-speaking, with most of the remainder French-speakers along with a few native German-speakers. Brussels itself is officially bi-lingual, and historically was predominantly a Dutch-speaking city through the centuries, from the mediaeval and Renaissance era down to early modern times. However, this changed in the 1800s, and Brussels today is at least 70 per cent French-speaking, with many of the rest of Brussels residents foreign-born rather than Dutch-speaking.

Yet, in one of the many curious paradoxes of Belgium's governmental arrangements, the predominantly French-speaking Brussels remains the 'capital' of the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, while the French language community of Belgium has its capital in the provincial city of Namur.

Thus today, the Martelaarsplaats - Place des Martyrs, is the site of major national offices of Dutch-speaking Flanders. The Flemish government holds the two major buildings facing each other across the longer distance of the square, and the one you see in the photos in close-up with the three flags over the doorway (the EU flag, the Belgian flag, and the predominantly yellow Flemish flag) is actually the 'Kabinet van de Minister-President' of the 'Vlaamse Regering', or the 'Office of the Minister-President' (Prime Minister) of the Flemish government.

In front of the office of the Flemish Prime Minister, is a monument built in 1897 and dedicated to one of the particular martyrs of the Revolution, Jenneval. 'Jenneval' was the stage name of Louis Alexandre Hippolyte Dechez, as 'Jenneval' a well-known actor, who died from wounds in battle in October 1830. But some weeks before his death, Jenneval penned some of the original words to the Belgian national anthem, the Brabançonne. This monument to Jenneval was dedicated in 1897, on September 25th, precisely amid the 67th anniversary of the 1830 Belgian revolution for independence.

The inscriptions on the Jenneval monument are in both Dutch and French on opposite sides of it, though the French inscription is extremely weather-worn and hard to read. The inscriptions are:

Aan Jenneval
Dichter der Brabançonne
Gesneuveld voor 's lands
Onafhankelijkheid
Hulde der stad Brussel
25 september 1897

À Jenneval
Poète de la Brabançonne
Mort pour l'indépendance
Nationale
Hommage de la ville
de Bruxelles
25 septembre 1897

To Jenneval
Poet of the Brabançonne
Slain for his country's / the nation's independence
A tribute of the city of Brussels
25 September 1897

On the far opposite side of the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats, in front of the other Flemish government building here, is a monument to another hero of the Belgian Revolution, Comte (Count) Frédéric de Mérode, who was mortally wounded in battle in October 1830 and died a few days later in early November. His brother, Count Félix de Mérode, was a major figure in the Belgian provisional government in the weeks of revolution.

The Mérode monument also carries inscriptions on opposite sides in both French and Dutch:

À
Frédéric de Mérode
Mort pour l'indépendance
De la patrie

Aan
Frederic de Merode
Gestorven voor de
Onafhankelijkheid
van het vaderland

To
Frédéric de Mérode
Who died for the independence
Of our home country

The map with this Flickr photo set will show you how to walk to the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats. It is a few minutes' walk from either the De Brouckère or Rogier métro stations, via the popular rue Neuve - Nieuwstraat shopping promenade that runs between De Brouckère and Rogier. As you walk along the rue Neuve - Nieuwstraat, you see it visible a very few metres to the east along one of the intersections, at the Rue Saint-Michel - Sint-Michielsstraat, with the central monument of the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats clearly visible.

A brief history of Belgium, and the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats (Martyrs' Square) in that history -

Among the most moving places to visit in the capital of Belgium, is Martyrs' Square in Brussels, where over 400 heroes of the Belgian Revolution of 1830 lie buried in a crypt beneath the cobblestones. This square is usually known by its French name, La Place des Martyrs, or also by its Dutch name, De Martelaarsplaats. Many of the dead here lie not far from where they were shot, in fierce battles amid the Brussels streets and barricades.

A wonderful monument here honours these heroes who died for the cause of freedom, in the brief 1830-31 revolutionary war that created the Belgian nation.

Particularly extraordinary and moving at the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats, are four beautiful sculptures of angels, with the angels´ faces in touchingly eternal expressions of mourning for the brave ones who gave their lives for the freedom of others.

These are photos from the daily life of writer, journalist and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs - I am someone who also has nearly died fighting for freedom for others.

These Flickr photos document my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well. I'm happy to help convey to the world some of Brussels' wonderful cultural heritage.

(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists 'About Les Sachs' linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as 'Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs'.)

The Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats remains a place where today's Belgians continue to remember and honour the heroes who died for them. Some weeks before the earlier group of these pictures were taken, on one rainy morning, I stood at the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats in the pouring rain, with a small group of Belgians in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, a number of them frail and supporting themselves unsteadily with canes on the uneven cobblestone surface, while a brass band was playing patriotic music. Though the rain was pouring down heavily on the Place des Martyrs, these elderly Belgians did not mind getting drenched, whatever the risk to their health, because these good people were children when the Nazis occupied Belgium, and that rainy day was a day to remember the Belgians who died fighting the fascist occupiers.

Quick sketch of the history of Belgium, and the historical role of Martyrs' Square -

The history of Belgium is not easy to outline. Belgium is today a nation with three official languages, reflecting its two large language groups of French and Dutch speakers, along with a small area whose native language is German. The Romans and Julius Caesar were in the neighbourhood over 2000 years ago, and Caesar wrote of fighting some fierce tribes here called the "Belgae", from whom the nation takes its name.

In fact, Julius Caesar referred to the Belgians or 'Belgae', in the very first sentence of his most famous book, 'De Bello Gallico', his commentary on the 'Gallic Wars': « Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae ... » « The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts, in one of which live the Belgians ... »

As the Roman Empire fell apart, the Belgian region was home to the Merovingian kings in the early "dark ages", and then was part of the empire of Charlemagne. Under Charlemagne's grandson Lothair and great-grandson King Lothair II, the area of current Belgium was part of a kingdom of 'Lotharingia' whose name we know today as the French 'Lorraine'. This kingdom rapidly divided among royal heirs, with 'Upper Lorraine' roughly inside what is now France, and Brussels becoming the capital of a 'Duchy of Lower Lorraine' - roughly today's Low Countries - when a castle was built in Brussels' old centre around the year 979.

Borders and regional identity continued to change quickly in the centuries after Charlemagne, the "high middle ages". What was 'Lower Lorraine' gave way to several of the great mediaeval territories and dukedoms spreading across differing sections of what is now Belgium, with names we still hear today: Flanders, Brabant, Luxembourg. And various smaller territories and fiefdoms were also a part here, amid the ever-shifting landscape of mediaeval and feudal Europe.

The middle part of Belgium, including Brussels, was the historic territory of Brabant, and the Dukes of Brabant, about the year 1100, built premises right at what is known today in Brussels as the Royal Square - Place Royale - Kongingsplaats.

Brabant and much of Belgium then came to be part of the great late-mediaeval dukedom of Burgundy, which reached the height of influence in the 1400s with Brussels as the Burgundian capital along with Dijon. At its height, Burgundy was regarded by many as the richest court in all Europe. Today's independent Belgium is thus a remnant of that long-ago much larger Renaissance realm of Burgundy, as well as of the even more ancient kingdom of mediaeval Lotharingia.

The area of today's Belgium kept its leading role in Europe in the early 1500s, as Burgundy in turn was enveloped into the Holy Roman Empire at its height. The towns of Belgium gave birth and upbringing to the Emperor Charles V, who at one point ruled most of Europe from Brussels. So, about 500 years ago, Brussels was already the 'centre' of Europe.

After Charles, his empire began to break apart, and the territory of today's Belgium had a succession of foreign rulers from within Charles V's widely-flung Habsburg family: First the Spanish, who kept hold of the territory we now call Belgium, while the Dutch to the north broke away during the Protestant Reformation. After the 'War of the Spanish Succession', the Habsburg territories were further divided, with Belgium going under Austrian control from 1714 onwards.

It was under the Austrians, in the late 1700s, that elegant buildings began to be built around a large square which was named the Place Saint-Michel, or Saint Michael's Square. This would later become Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats that you see here.

The beginning of the end of Austrian rule, and the beginning of the story of modern independent Belgium, was the 'Brabantine Revolution' (Révolution Brabançonne - Brabantse Revolutie), whereby in 1789 much of what is now Belgium, asserted its full independence from its then-rulers, the Habsburg emperors of Austria.

In sympathy and parallel with the epoch-changing revolution of 1789 in next-door France, the rebellious provinces of 'Austrian Netherlands' also went into rebellion that same year, and declared the deposition of the Austrian Habsburg Emperor, and the creation of the 'United Belgian States' (États-Belgiques-Unis - Verenigde Belgische Staten), which endured only briefly in 1789-1790. The 'Belgian' name came from the Latin word used by Julius Caesar to identify the fierce fighting tribes who inhabited this region in Caesar's day, the 'Belgae'.

In 1789, the seals of the document declaring the 'United Belgian States' to be 'free' and 'independent', were ornamented by silken tassels of black, yellow and red. The flag of the short-lived Belgian nation of 1789-90, then used these three colours, though in horizontal stripes and in a different order than the current vertically-striped Belgian flag.

The Austrians were able to briefly re-assert control of Belgium in 1790, then lost it to French control in 1792, and won it back one final time in 1793-94. The French then retained control, annexing most of what is now Belgium into France in 1795. As the Napoleonic era ended, Belgium was separated from France in 1814-1815.

As Napoléon was being defeated and his Empire terminated, the European nations meeting at the Council of Vienna of 1814-15, thought that the territories north of France, including modern Belgium and Luxembourg, should all be under the Dutch monarch, creating a single large buffer state between France and England.

The European powers meeting in Vienna avoided what might have seemed a more logical idea, of uniting only Dutch-speaking regions with the Netherlands, while letting the French-speaking regions of Wallonia remain united with France. The powers of 1815 did not want to reward France with territorial expansion to the north, precisely in the area around where Napoléon met his final defeat at Waterloo.

But the Vienna plan of shoving the French-speakers of Wallonia into a new Dutch monarchy, and expanding the Dutch nation and doubling its size, proved to be very unstable. The Dutch of the Netherlands were predominantly Protestant, while the southern populations, including the Dutch-speakers of Flanders, were predominantly Roman Catholic. And not only did the Catholic territories have large numbers of French speakers, the people in Flanders also speak a modestly different Dutch than in the Netherlands, which led them to chafe against the Dutch monarchy in sympathy with their French-speaking neighbours.

Tensions grew until an August, 1830 performance at the Brussels opera house, where political rebellion portrayed on the stage, became a catalyst for rebellion in the streets.

In September of 1830 the street rebellions became a full-blown revolution for Belgian independence. The Place Saint-Michel, Saint Michael's Square, a few hundred metres from the opera house where the fuse for revolution had been lit, became a key site for the declaration of Belgian liberty and independence, and a pivotal site in the fierce and deadly street battles. The central days of the revolution in September 1830 - the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th - are the dates inscribed upon the tablet held by the high figure in the monument that you see in the photos, representing the angel or goddess of the Belgian home nation (Latin 'patria'), with a lion by her side.

In 1830, with the hundreds of dead from the revolutionary battles, the decision was made to bury them there at the square, which now became the Square of the Martyrs of Freedom.

The revolution was quickly successful. Some battles continued to take place into 1831, as the Dutch made a last try to hold onto the Belgian territory, but the separation of Belgium and Luxembourg was speedily recognised and secured by the other European powers.

The Revolution of 1830 enabled Belgium to finally fulfil the dreams of the Belgian revolutionaries of 1789. The current Belgian tri-colour flag was established in 1831, using the 1789 colours of the 'Brabantine Revolution'. Belgium became a nation and even acquired a king of its own, the Protestant German Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who agreed to marry the Catholic daughter of the French monarch, and raise their children as French-speaking Roman Catholics, while he became the first hereditary King of the Belgians.

And today, the political refugee Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs, may owe the saving of his life in the face of the threats to murder him, to protection extended from the royal household of the King of the Belgians, the descendant of that first Belgian monarch.

Léopold I, who was born in 1790, reigned in Belgium until 1865. Early in his reign, he supervised the building of this monument at Martyrs' Square. In one of the photos of the angels by the monument, you see between two angels the large plaque with the text in Latin. Two dates are given. The first is that of the declaration of the nation's identity, on the 25th of September 1830, a date closely tied to the death of the martyrs buried in the crypt below. The second date, the 25th of September 1840, is the date of the completion and dedication of the main part of the monument, with the final line noting that this took place under Léopold I as the reigning monarch.

Though the main monument structure was indeed completed and dedicated in 1840, the lovely and magnificent angels were added some years later, in 1848. Today, it is these sculptured angels which, above all, give Martyrs' Square its high character of deep emotion and magnificence.

The buildings around the square have, over the centuries, partially fallen into a difficult state, and you see one of the buildings undergoing inside-out comprehensive renovation in the photos. The overall revival and restoration of Martyrs' Square has been given a major boost, however, by the government of Belgium's majority Flemish-speaking region.

Belgium today is about 60 per cent Dutch-speaking, with most of the remainder French-speakers along with a few native German-speakers. Brussels itself is officially bi-lingual, and historically was predominantly a Dutch-speaking city through the centuries, from the mediaeval and Renaissance era down to early modern times. However, this changed in the 1800s, and Brussels today is at least 70 per cent French-speaking, with many of the rest of Brussels residents foreign-born rather than Dutch-speaking.

Yet, in one of the many curious paradoxes of Belgium's governmental arrangements, the predominantly French-speaking Brussels remains the 'capital' of the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, while the French language community of Belgium has its capital in the provincial city of Namur.

Thus today, the Martelaarsplaats - Place des Martyrs, is the site of major national offices of Dutch-speaking Flanders. The Flemish government holds the two major buildings facing each other across the longer distance of the square, and the one you see in the photos in close-up with the three flags over the doorway (the EU flag, the Belgian flag, and the predominantly yellow Flemish flag) is actually the 'Kabinet van de Minister-President' of the 'Vlaamse Regering', or the 'Office of the Minister-President' (Prime Minister) of the Flemish government.

In front of the office of the Flemish Prime Minister, is a monument built in 1897 and dedicated to one of the particular martyrs of the Revolution, Jenneval. 'Jenneval' was the stage name of Louis Alexandre Hippolyte Dechez, as 'Jenneval' a well-known actor, who died from wounds in battle in October 1830. But some weeks before his death, Jenneval penned some of the original words to the Belgian national anthem, the Brabançonne. This monument to Jenneval was dedicated in 1897, on September 25th, precisely amid the 67th anniversary of the 1830 Belgian revolution for independence.

The inscriptions on the Jenneval monument are in both Dutch and French on opposite sides of it, though the French inscription is extremely weather-worn and hard to read. The inscriptions are:

Aan Jenneval
Dichter der Brabançonne
Gesneuveld voor 's lands
Onafhankelijkheid
Hulde der stad Brussel
25 september 1897

À Jenneval
Poète de la Brabançonne
Mort pour l'indépendance
Nationale
Hommage de la ville
de Bruxelles
25 septembre 1897

To Jenneval
Poet of the Brabançonne
Slain for his country's / the nation's independence
A tribute of the city of Brussels
25 September 1897

On the far opposite side of the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats, in front of the other Flemish government building here, is a monument to another hero of the Belgian Revolution, Comte (Count) Frédéric de Mérode, who was mortally wounded in battle in October 1830 and died a few days later in early November. His brother, Count Félix de Mérode, was a major figure in the Belgian provisional government in the weeks of revolution.

The Mérode monument also carries inscriptions on opposite sides in both French and Dutch:

À
Frédéric de Mérode
Mort pour l'indépendance
De la patrie

Aan
Frederic de Merode
Gestorven voor de
Onafhankelijkheid
van het vaderland

To
Frédéric de Mérode
Who died for the independence
Of our home country

The map with this Flickr photo set will show you how to walk to the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats. It is a few minutes' walk from either the De Brouckère or Rogier métro stations, via the popular rue Neuve - Nieuwstraat shopping promenade that runs between De Brouckère and Rogier. As you walk along the rue Neuve - Nieuwstraat, you see it visible a very few metres to the east along one of the intersections, at the Rue Saint-Michel - Sint-Michielsstraat, with the central monument of the Place des Martyrs - Martelaarsplaats clearly visible.