In front of you is one of the oldest churches in Brussels. A charter of 1134 from Duke Godfrey the Bearded already mentions a chapel here, which gave its name to both the church and the square.

1The painter of the Marolles

In 1563 Pieter Bruegel the Elder married Mayken Coecke, the daughter of his former master, in this church. The painter settled in the neighbourhood, as working-class then as it is now, and spent his last years here, the years of works such as “The Hunters in the Snow” and “The Parable of the Blind”. He died in September 1569 and was buried in this church, where his epitaph can still be seen.

2The burned drawings

Bruegel’s first biographer, Karel van Mander, recorded an unsettling detail in 1604. According to him, on his deathbed the painter asked his wife to burn certain drawings with captions that were far too biting, either because he regretted them or because he feared they might get her into trouble.

No one knows what they showed. These were the years of the Duke of Alba, when satire could cost you dearly.

Historians treat Van Mander with caution, since he wrote decades later and had a taste for anecdote. Nor is there any certainty about which house was Bruegel’s: tradition places it on nearby Rue Haute, but the claim is disputed.

3What to look for

  • The Baroque belfry, which replaced the Gothic spire after the bombardment of 1695.
  • The mix of styles: a Romanesque-Gothic transept and a Gothic nave.
  • Rue Haute (Hoogstraat), which starts behind you and leads into the heart of the Marolles.

Documented

Bruegel the Elder married in this church in 1563 and was buried here in 1569; Van Mander reported in 1604 that he asked for some of his drawings to be burned.

Oral tradition

The identification of Bruegel’s house on Rue Haute is traditional and disputed; the content of the destroyed drawings is unknown.

Sources and credits

Karel van Mander, “Het Schilder-boeck” (1604), life of Pieter Bruegel; National Gallery of Art, Washington, biography of Pieter Bruegel the Elder; French Wikipedia, “Église Notre-Dame de la Chapelle (Bruxelles)”.

Photos:

  • The church of Notre-Dame de la Chapelle with its Baroque belfry: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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