The (
French, ) or (
Dutch
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship ()
** Dutch language ()
* In specific terms, i ...
) is a
square
In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
in the
City of Brussels
The City of Brussels is the largest List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality and historical City centre, centre of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the ...
municipality of
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, Belgium. It is named in honour of Charles-Xavier Sainctelette, a former Belgian minister for public works.
The square lies along the
Brussels–Charleroi Canal
The Brussels–Charleroi Canal (; ), also known as the Charleroi Canal amongst other similar names, is an important canal in Belgium. The canal is quite large, with a Class IV Freycinet gauge, and its Walloon portion is long. It runs from Ch ...
, on the border with the
Molenbeek-Saint-Jean
(French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western p ...
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
, from which it is separated by the canal. This area is served by
Yser/IJzer metro station on lines
2 and
6 of the
Brussels Metro
The Brussels Metro ( ; ) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It consists of four conventional metro lines and three '' premetro'' lines. The metro-grade lines are M1, M2, M5, and M6 wi ...
.
History
Early history
The Square Sainctelette, named after Belgian minister for public works Charles-Xavier Sainctelette (1825–1898), was constructed in 1911 together with the /, the /, the / and the /. The area, forming the northern part of the
Quays or Sainte-Catherine/Sint-Katelijne Quarter, was known for its wholesale shops, fruit and vegetable auctions and market halls. These were active until the 1970s. At the end of the 1960s, there was an increase in Mediterranean wholesalers.
The square is surrounded by apartment buildings in
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
and ''
Haussmann-esque'' style. The
Citroën Garage was built in the early 1930s in
modernist
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
style. Next to the Citroën Garage is the Kaaitheater, a theatre built in Art Deco and modernist styles that was known as the Lunatheater in the early 1930s.
Below the square is Sainctelette metro station, which has never been opened.
21st century
The Square Sainctelette has a mixture of residential and office buildings, with culture represented by the Kaaitheater and Citroën Garage, which has been converted into the
KANAL – Centre Pompidou museum of modern and contemporary art. As a traffic axis, the square, located in the north-western corner of
Brussels' Pentagon (, ), is part of the
Small Ring (Brussels' inner ring road).
In 2019, the square was voted the most dangerous intersection in Brussels in an online poll carried out by the Dutch-language Brussels broadcaster
BRUZZ
(''Flemish-Brussels Media''), shortened to VBM and operating under the brand Bruzz (stylised in all caps) is a non-profit media company dedicated to serving the Flemish Community in Brussels. A counterpart to , which caters to the French-speaki ...
. In the same year, plans were completed for a drastic redesign of the square. At the beginning of 2022, an application was made to transform the square into a contiguous space with the Place de l'Yser.
On 16 October 2023, an intersection and building just off the square were the scene of a
terrorist attack
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war a ...
in which two Swedish football supporters were killed by a gunman and a third injured.
KANAL - Centre Pompidou
KANAL - Centre Pompidou is a museum for modern and contemporary art located in Brussels, Belgium, near the Brussels–Charleroi Canal, in the former Citroën Garage buildings. The opening is scheduled for 28 November 2026. During the renovat ...
See also
*
Art Deco in Brussels
*
History of Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital ...
*
Belgium in the long nineteenth century
In the history of Belgium, the period from 1789 to 1914, dubbed the "Long nineteenth century, long 19th century" by the historian Eric Hobsbawm, includes the end of Habsburg monarchy, Austrian rule and periods of French First Republic, French ...
References
External links
* {{Commons category-inline, Square Sainctelette/Sainctelettesquare, Brussels
Sainctelettesquare(Inventaris Bouwkundig Erfgoed)
Squares in Brussels
City of Brussels
1911 in Belgium