The slightest detail of the façades of this picturesque corner is the exact reproduction of an authentic architectural element, which the researchers have carefully observed in the constructions of the beautiful period of Brussels history.
But we can already imagine the appearance of this old street when the signs of the craftsmen of the past will hang there, while the period costumes will give it an increased touch of truth.

The future Brussels International Exhibition will officially open on April 27, in just under three months.
Needless to say, everywhere on the Heysel plateau, we work hard to get everything ready for this date.
The managers, in any case, are confident because there has been, so far, no significant delay.
Witness the section of "Old Brussels" where all the shell, it seems, is finished.
All that remains is the general layout of the roads and surrounding areas, as well as that of the interior of the buildings and, above all, the installation of the (fake) patina of the centuries on the facades.

So we can be quiet: soon, this section will undoubtedly enjoy the favor of the public, both foreign and Brussels. The three hectares reserved for reconstructions of the living environment in the past centuries, today without soul, will be animated with movements and colors, costumes and folkloric processions.
And the ghosts of houses that represent our photos will relive, in joy, a second existence.

The "nail" of "Old Brussels" will undeniably be the faithful reconstruction, according to the engravings of the time, of the former palace of the dukes of Brabant, once located at the top of the Montagne de la Cour, which was destroyed from the ground up in a fire in 1731 and on the ruins of which is now part of Place Royale.
Of course, its stucco walls are not yet mine, but wait until it has undergone its cure of aging!

This will be the heart and center of "Vieux-Bruxelles", with in the foreground the old "Place des Bailles" around which a series of famous hotels have been rebuilt; that of Nassau, Arenberg, Rubempre, Aerschot-Crooy, etc.

This street of "Vieux-Bruxelles" is the one that apparently has fallen behind.
The causeway, which is still a real quagmire, the result of abundant rains in recent days, leads to the palace of the dukes of Brabant, in the background, a piece of facade, between two rows of houses evocative of the past .

Already, beautiful perspectives are offered to the eyes of the privileged few who discover the "Old-Brussels in preview: the Senne thinks there about the typical houses with gable of our fathers, old patrician residences there neighbor with small maisonnettes d ' artisans, or sumptuous buildings like the House of Goldsmiths
All these constructions are faithful reconstructions of buildings that really existed in the Brussels of yesteryear.

Who can believe that the old Brussels had streets of the style of this one, which evokes that of a small Brabant village?

The success of such achievements, which was affirmed at the recent exhibition in Chicago, where the "Ancienne Belgique" received the visit of an exceptional number of American visitors, allows to hope that this historical attraction of the Expo 1935 will, as they say, be a "tobacco".
All suggests.

Nature only has to do its work and to
cover the trees with green branches ...