Maison du Pigeon - De Duif, Baroque retail building in Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium.
Maison du Pigeon, also known as De Duif, is a baroque house and retail building on the south side of Grand Place in Brussels. Its three-bay facade is decorated with grotesque masks, pilasters topped with Ionic capitals, and arched openings arranged symmetrically across several floors.
The building was constructed in 1697 after French artillery destroyed much of central Brussels the year before, as part of the general reconstruction of Grand Place. It was first owned by the painters' guild, then passed to stonemason and architect Pierre Simon.
At street level, a chocolate shop and a lace store carry on two crafts that Belgium has long been associated with, and both are easy to spot from the square. Visitors can step inside directly from the cobblestones of Grand Place without any prior arrangement.
The building sits at numbers 26-27 on Grand Place, between La Chaloupe d'Or and Le Marchand d'Or, which makes it straightforward to find once you are on the square. The best view of the facade comes from the opposite side of the square, where you can take in the full width of the building.
Victor Hugo wrote his political pamphlet 'Napoleon le Petit' in an apartment above a tobacco shop in this building, where he stayed after being exiled in 1852. The text, which attacked Napoleon III directly, was written and completed during what turned out to be a short stay in Brussels.
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