The War of the Brabantian Succession (15 June 1356 – 4 June 1357)

When he died in 1355, Jan III Duke of Brabant and of Limburg left behind three daughters and no son. This created a succession problem for the Duchy. His second son-in-law, Louis II, Count of Flanders, alias Louis of Male, attacked the Duchy in an attempt to seize power, aided by Jan’s third son-in-law Reginald III, Duke of Guelders.

In fact, Duke Jan III had intended for his oldest daughter Joanna to succeed him, according to “ius Brabantinum” law.

In order to exert her power, Joanna and her husband performed the “Joyous Entry of 1356” in Leuven on 3 January 1356. This is known in Dutch as the “Blijde Inkomst” and the street in which they entered Leuven is still known today as the “Blijde Inkomststraat“.

The Joyous Entry of 1356 is of vital significance.

It was not just a spectacle, witnessed by citizens, nobles and officials from all Brabantian cities. It was the Magna Carta of Brabant, where she granted a charter of liberties granted to the burghers in return for their loyalty to her as their Duchess.

Nevertheless, a few months later, Flanders attacked Brabant. The Flemish occupied Brussels (18 August 1356), Mechelen (20 August 1356), Leuven and Vilvoorde (22 August 1356), Antwerpen and Grimbergen (23 August 1356), Tienen and Nijvel (24 August 1356).

It was only when Joanna’s husband, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg, approached his half-brother, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor for help that the war ended. The Flemish were driven out of Brabant and Joanna was finally recognised as the Duchess of Brabant by her neighbours.

400 years of Brussels’ Outer City Wall (1357-1783)

It was likely the result of this war that Brussels started building its second (outer) city walls.

Records show that the constructions started in 1357, a year after Leuven. By 1379, the names for the new city gates started appearing in documents with different variations.

First it was the city gates that were built, and the walls linking the gates were then erected. In total, there were seven city gates:

Leuvensepoort
(Nieuwe) Koudenbergpoort (later Naamsepoort)
Obbrusselpoort (later Hallepoort)
Anderlechtsepoort
Vlaamsepoort
Lakensepoort
Keulsepoort (later Schaarbeeksepoort)

But with the decision by Habsburg Emperor Jozef II to demolish all city defense throughout his realm, Brussels’ city wall was gradually torn down since 1783.

In the place of the city gates, twin pavilions were placed at fourteen entry points. The walls gave way to broad green boulevards designed by Jean-Baptiste Vifquain, from 1818 to 1840. But because of Brussels was already being Brussels, due to the taxation differences between Brussels inhabitants and those of the satellite towns, a patent wall had to be built 2.5m high with a 3m-wide ditch (basically a small city wall) to demarcate the city boundaries.

During this time, a ring road following the pentagonal shape of the old city was built over the moat. Today, the circle metro line follows the trajectory and so does the modern inner ring road.

Cologne or Cabbage?

The name of the city gate “Keulsepoort” was first recorded in 1363, but there was also another spelling used at the same time “Koolsepoort” (both modernised here for your convenience). The first spelling translates into “Cologne Gate“. This was really puzzling for historians because there are two issues with the location of this outer city gate:

First, it is not in the direct line from the inner city gate of Warmoespoort, unlike the other outer city gates (except the Lakensepoort which had to stay on the River Zenne). Instead, after exiting the Warmoespoort, one had to zigzag his way to the Keulsepoort. Should this be a major trade route all the way to Cologne, it seemed to have been ill thought out.

Second, in order to go to Cologne, one first had to pass through Leuven and there was already a Leuvensepoort (Leuven Gate). This way through the village of Schaarbeek was actually a detour to go to Leuven.

For this reason, some historians thought the second spelling of “Koolsepoort” offered a better explanation: instead of Cologne, the word means “cabbage” (kolen). This would have made sense because the area outside of the Warmoespoort was used to grow vegetables. There is a street in this area that is still called today “Koolstraat” (Rue aux Choux) – Cabbage Street, which in the 16th century was called the “Koolhovenstrate” (Cabbage Garden Street).

It makes sense that the name of the Koolsepoort actually meant “Cabbage Gate”!

Perhaps because of this, the name “Schaarbeeksepoort” (Schaarbeek Gate) gradually took over in the 16th century.

Zavelweg: The Old Sandy Road to Schaarbeek

As you can see on the 1572 map, there was a road that led from the city that passed through the Keulsepoort/Schaarbeeksepoort and continued outside the city towards Schaarbeek. Back then, the village of Schaarbeek was not even on the map. This road was known in the Middle Ages as the Zavelweg, quite literally ‘sand way‘.

It was through the Zavelweg that villagers from Schaarbeek and beyond brought their produce to Brussels, mostly on donkey backs (more on that later).

Miraculously the road still exists today.

On the city side, there is a road called Zavelstraat (Rue des Sables) which should extend the boulevard Pachécho. With the establishment of the botanical gardens, the extra-muros part of the street is gone but is now called the Poststraat (Chemin de la Poste).

This street is located behind the gardens and still follows its original trajectory to the Sint-Servatiuskerk first built in 1612.

While this road is old, there are some who claim that this was Roman. Unfortunately, Brussels is not as Latin as some (mostly French-speakers) like it to be. In Roman times there were two main roads from the port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) to the imperial colony of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne). The longer southern route is nowadays called ‘Via Belgica‘ through Bagacum Nerviorum (Bavay). The shorter one went past Asse (above Brussels) through Elewijt, Kortenberg, Leuven and Tienen towards Atuatuca Tungrorum (Tongeren).

Of Donkeys and Cherries

The name “Schaarbeek” is related to the long stream that flows outside the city of Brussels called “Maalbeek” (not the same one in Molenbeek). Maalbeek flows from the Abbey Ter Kameren in Elsene, through Etterbeek and Sint-Joost-ten-Node, then in Schaarbeek when it flows into the River Zenne.

Like the Zenne, Maalbeek was covered over in 1872.

It is most likely that “schaar” was a South Brabant version of the Middle Dutch word for the English word “shore” while “beek” is a stream referring to the Maalbeek.

Thus the village was literally on the shore of the stream. You can still catch a glimpse of the Maalbeek in today’s Josaphat Park.

The first written record of Schaarbeek was in 1120 as ‘Scarenbeca‘ by the Bishop of Cambrai. It then appeared again in 1135 as ‘Scarembecca‘ and 1190 as ‘Scarebeke‘.

This little village on the shore of the Maalbeek and River Zenne was known for two things: cherries and donkeys.

The ‘Schaarbeekse Kriek‘ is a type of native European sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) and Schaarbeek was the main producer in the region. As you may know, Brussels is known for its sour beer called Geuze that is fermented through yeast specifically in the Zenne Valley. The cherry beer “Kriek” is made by adding cherry juice to the Geuze. While this is replaced with sweet cherry today, the original Kriek used the Schaarbeek sour cherries to give it a bright red colour and a great aroma without too much sugar. Unfortunately, with urbanisation, the centuries-old sour cherry production has disappeared from Schaarbeek.

Schaarbeek was also known as the donkey town. Since the Middle Ages, villagers plied their produce, including the sour cherries, in baskets on the backs of donkeys. When the cherry salesmen arrived in the city, Brussels inhabitants would mock them by shouting: “Hei! Doë zên die êzels van Schoerebeik!” (Hey! Here are the donkeys from Schaarbeek!). Donkeys are hard to come by these days in modern Schaarbeek but they do make their appearance, with sour cherries, at carnival every year.

There was even records of a “Donkey Way” (Eselwech) in medieval Brussels itself but it is difficult to ascertain where that was. In all likelihood, it could just be another name for the Zavelweg by which donkeys entered the city.

Of lovers and saint

Apart from cherries and donkeys, Schaarbeek had two persistent legends.

In the Josaphat Park today, you’d still find a spring water source referred to as the “Minnebron“, or the “Lovers’ Spring“. According to local myths, once upon a time, there lived a young lady called Herlinde from a noble family in a nearby castle. One evening, on this spot by the spring, Herlinde met and fell in love with a knight named Theobald. They agreed to meet here in secret every day until one day, Theobald was called up to go to war. He promised Herlinde he would return but he never did. She waited every night by the spring, but Theobald never showed up. Out of despair, Herlinde drowned herself in the spring.

Her death however grants reunion to all lovers who drink from the spring before parting ways, for they shall be reunited before the end of the year.

The other legend from Schaarbeek was less positive.

Around 1225, a girl named Aleydis (Alice) was born to a farming family here in Schaarbeek and at the age of seven, she was entrusted to the Cistercian convent of Ter Kameren. The girl immediately developed a great interest in religion and took monastic vows soon after. At the age of twenty, she was struck by leprosy, which caused her to spend the rest of her life in an isolated cell. As her body deteriorated and she lost her sight, she claimed to have felt a strong connection to the suffering Christ. When she died in June 1250, popular veneration for her arose almost immediately.

After a few hundred years, it was only in 1907 that Pope Pius X officially recognised her as a saint. Her feast day is celebrated on June 11 but on June 15 (in the archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels).

The earliest depiction of the Keulsepoort/Schaarbeeksepoort showed three sections of receding twin towers that stretched across the moat, as is consistent with the hilly geography of the city gate that is still visible today. The tallest twin towers attached to the city wall rose a few storeys high, followed by a shorter set of twin towers, with the last set of towers towards Schaarbeek. The last two sets of towers were built over the dry moat. People and goods would have to pass through a single passageway through these towers.

These last two were visible absent in the 19th paintings which showed that they were most likely demolished or removed due to decay.

This original Keulsepoort/Schaarbeeksepoort would have been located on the spot of the “Financietoren” (Finance Tower), while the extension would have cut across today’s ring road into what is today’s Brussels Botanical Gardens.

The Second Schaarbeeksepoort and the birth of modern Belgium

Just like how (almost) all the outer city gates of Brussels were demolished by Habsburg Emperor Joseph II and then further flattened under the French Occupation, the Keulsepoort/Schaarbeeksepoort was demolished in 1784 to make way for the ring road of Brussels that we know today. In its place, two pavilions were built around 1825 by Nicolas Roget, like the other demolished city gates.

But the man responsible for these pavilions and the broad boulevards had other ideas: Jean-Baptiste Vifquain, clearly a royalist, wanted to create the “tracé royal” (royal tracks), to link the Royal Palace in Brussels to the Castle of Laken.

A new long broad boulevard called the Koningsstraat (Rue Royale) was first created copying Parisian fashion: the new road was paved that linking the Koningsplein (Place Royale) to the Leuvenseplein (Place de Louvain) in 1777. In 1822, an extension was made to the new ring road by engineer Jean-Alexandre Werry and architect Henri Partoes. In 1828, Jean-Baptiste Vifquain further extended this boulevard to the Koninklijke Sint-Mariakerk (Royal Saint Mary’s Church) in Schaarbeek and he also moved the Schaarbeeksepoort 100 metres north right on the new Koningsstraat (Rue Royale).

It was around this new Schaarbeeksepoort that the fiercest fighting took place in September 1830 during the Belgian Revolution.

The army of King Willem I of the Netherlands positioned themselves in Schaarbeek outside the Schaarbeeksepoort where they fired cannons at the rebels who were gathered in the Warande Park. On 27 September, Prince Frederik outside the gate wrote to his brother Willem the crown prince that he was giving up Brussels. A year later in 1831, modern Belgium was born.

In 1860, this new Schaarbeeksepoort was completely demolished. The name however has remained, for the junction between the Koningsstraat (Rue Royale) and the Kruidtuinlaan (Boulevard du Jardin Botanique). But apparently, the iron-wrought gates were sold to some village in Hainaut and still exist somewhere there.

From Vegetables to Garden: How the Schaarbeeksepoort became Brussels’ Botanical Gardens

Let us go back to the middle ages for a minute.

Just like how you can perceive on the map, the village of Schaarbeek was a very desolate place in the 16th century. In 1526, it had 112 house and close to 600 inhabitants.

This has remained so for a long time until 1826, when the Royal Society for Horticulture was looking for a spot for its new botanical gardens which used to be in the former Palace of Karel van Lotharingen.

A 6.37 hectare land was identified just outside the newly built pavilions of the demolished Schaarbeeksepoort which was a mishmash of ponds, forests and vegetable patches. Garden architect Charles-Henri Petersen was tasked to the design and the brand-new botanical gardens “Kruidtuin” of Brussels was opened in September 1829.

The opening of this modern, beautiful garden was the most spectacular event in the united Netherlands. Fireworks lit up the night sky that illuminated both the greenhouse and the Schaarbeeksepoort. This scene was aptly capture in the painting of Henri Van Assche.

Due to the new Schaarbeeksepoort junction, the location of the original Keulsepoort (Schaarbeeksepoort) is completely hidden from sight under the modern Finance Tower of the Belgian ministry of finance. The orientation is likewise skewed with the Botanical Gardens built on top of the medieval artery towards Schaarbeek. But if one looks, one is still able to retrace the steps of the cherry-laden donkeys hundreds of years ago along the Poststraat.

Sources:

Vannieuwenhuyze, B. (2011) “Brussel, de Ontwikkeling van een middeleeuwse stedelijke ruimte.” Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadspoorten_van_Brussel
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaarbeeksepoort https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porte_de_Schaerbeek https://monument.heritage.brussels/nl/streets/10004023 https://monument.heritage.brussels/nl/streets/10302217 https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruidtuin_(Brussel) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaarbeek https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleidis_van_Schaarbeek https://gtb.ivdnt.org/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=MNW&id=48626&Betekenis_id=48626.sense.1

1. Cantagallina, Remigio. (1613) “De Schaarbeeksepoort, oktober 1613” KASK (image)
2. Cantagallina, Remigio. (1613) “De Schaarbeeksepoort langs de stadszijde” KASK (image)
3. Unknown. (1750) “Scharebecksepoort – vanuit het westen.” Broodhuis (image)
4. Vitzthumb, Paul. (1766-1780) ” La porte de Schaerbeek à la fin du XVIIIe siècle” KBR (image)
5. Vitzthumb, Paul. (1766-1780) ” La porte de Schaerbeek à la fin du XVIIIe siècle” KBR (image)
6. Spaak, Louis. (1782-1785) “L’ancienne Porte de Schaerbeek” Broodhuis (image)
7. Unknown. (1850) “Ancienne Porte de Schaerbeek (Et. Royal de Lith. Dewasme-Pletinckx)” Broodhuis (image)
8. Van Assche, Henri. (1829) “Fireworks at the opening of the Jardin Botanique in Brussels, 1829” Wikimedia Commons (image)
9. Unknown. (1830) “Gevechten bij de Schaarbeekse Poort in Brussel, 1830.” Rijksmuseum Nederland. (image)
10. Unknown. (1880) “Révolution belge de 1830 — Attaque de la porte de Schaerbeek par les troupes hollandaises.” L’Illustration nationale, 1880. (image)
11. Judenne, François. (1830-1835 ) “De Nederlandse troepen trekken de Schaarbeekse Poort door, 23 septembre 1830” Broodhuis (image)
12. Madou, Jean-Baptiste; Simonau, Pierre. (1830-1840 ) “De Schaarbeeksepoort, aan het begin van de Koningsstraat op 23 september 1830” Broodhuis (image)