Everard 't Serclaes memorial, Bronze sculpture at Maison de l'Étoile, Grand Place, Belgium
The memorial at Maison de l'Étoile on the Grand Place is a brass sculpture showing a reclining figure of Everard t'Serclaes. Its surface features detailed bas-reliefs depicting scenes from Brussels' resistance against invaders.
Sculptor Julien Dillens created the memorial in 1902 to commemorate Everard t'Serclaes' death. The historical city leader defended Brussels' rights in 1388 against external pressure.
The Latin motto "Pro aris et focis" ("For our altars and our hearths") crowns the reliefs, while the Dutch cry "Met hand en tand voor stad en land" sits below the top scene. In the lower right corner of the third relief a woman pulls a fowl from a basket, a nod to the Brussels nickname "Kiekefretters", chicken eaters, also carved on the right pilaster capital.
The memorial is set into the gallery passage beneath the Maison de l'Étoile, at the corner of rue Charles Buls and the Grand-Place, where t'Serclaes died of his wounds in 1388. The brass relief was taken down again on 18 October 2011 for a deep renovation entrusted to the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (IRPA). The worn lower figure is the part passers-by reach for.
Visitors regularly touch the arm of the figure, a tradition that started between World Wars I and II. This touching habit wore the surface so heavily that it required later conservation.
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