Beautiful Guild Houses in Brussels

One of Belgium's most beautiful attractions include the guild houses built during the middle ages. These tall buildings show the stunning architecture which Belgians of yore were already capable of creating. The guild houses are found all over Brussels, giving tourists and younger Belgians a peek into the past.

Guild houses were built in Brussels to serve as the headquarters of corporations or groups of merchants, royals and rich men who played a role, some significant and some minor, in the development of Brussels. Whenever the members of these many corporations would meet in Brussels, they would stay in their respective guild houses. Although guild houses back then would accommodate a number of people from time to time, some of them were actually privately owned and could be rented by another member of the corporation, exclusively.

Aside from being used as the residence of some corporations or guilds, these guild houses were also used as a way to promote the guild and showcase their wealth. The very reason why many guild houses look more elegant than the King's House is because a great deal of time, attention, and money were poured into the construction and design of these guild houses.

Today, these guild houses are rented by other businessmen while the rest are now hotels. The guild houses we see in Modern Brussels were actually rebuilt from the late 1690's, right after Brussels came under fire with the French. Some of the features of these guild houses are no longer authentic, except for the statues that would adorn the highest point of the roof to indicate who owned or stayed in a particular guild house.

Although visible naming techniques were not used by the guild house members back in the day, one could tell which house was which by simply looking at the ornaments at the roof of a building. The surviving guild houses today include the following:

The Mountain of Thabor, the Rose, the Golden Tree, the Swan and the Star can be found on the leftmost side of the Town Hall. The Swan is now a restaurant, but before that, it was an inn counting Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as its customers.

Beside this group of guild houses is another street lined with more, similar buildings. Located on the right side of the Town Hall is where you can find the Fox, which served as the House of the Traders of Brussels and has St. Nicolas on the roof, the Horn which was the House of Sailors and has the rear end of a ship as its roof ornament, followed by the She-Wolfe, the Sack, and the Wheelbarrow.

Another group of guild houses located in this area include the King of Spain which was the House of bakers, the Mule, Saint Barbara, the Samaritan, the Oak, the Peacock, the Helmet which is also known as the King's House, the Merchant of Gold, the Pigeon, the Golden Sloop, the Angel, Joseph and Anna, and finally, the Deer.

Nearby, you will find the largest group of guild houses belonging the the House of the Dukes of Brabant. This group comprises of 7 guild houses owned by one company.