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Joseph Poelaert
Joseph Poelaert
Born	21 March 1817; Brussels, Belgium
Died	3 November 1879 (aged 62); Brussels, Belgium
Nationality	Belgian
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Palace of Justice of Brussels; Congress Column; Church of Our Lady of Laeken

Joseph Poelaert (21 March 1817 – 3 November 1879) was a Belgian architect. He was entrusted with important projects in Brussels, such as Saint Catherine's Church, the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, the Congress Column, the Royal Theatre of la Monnaie and above all, the Palace of Justice.

Life

Early life

Joseph Poelaert was born in Brussels on 21 March 1817. His father was Philip Poelaert (1790–1875), a former architecture student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. The young Poelaert also trained there under Tilman-François Suys, and then in Paris under Louis Visconti and Jean-Nicolas Huyot.

He first came to attention with his winning competition entry for the Congress Column in 1849. He was made city architect of Brussels in 1856.

Palace of Justice

Poelaert's most significant commission was the colossal Palace of Justice of Brussels, the largest single building constructed in the 19th century and even copied in smaller scale at the Palace of Justice in Lima, Peru.^[1]

For the Palace of Justice's construction, a section of the Marolles/Marollen neighbourhood was demolished. Poelaert himself resided in the Marolles, only a few hundred metres from the building, on the Rue des Minimes/Minimenstraat, in a house adjoining his vast offices and workshops and communicating with them.^[2]^[3] It is thus unlikely he saw himself as ruining the neighbourhood. Nonetheless, many angry citizens personally blamed Poelaert for the forced relocations, and the expression skieven architek (meaning "crooked architect") became one of the most serious insults in the dialect of the Marolles.^[4]

Family

Marriage

At the age of 42, on 25 August 1859 in Brussels, Poelaert married Léonie Toussaint, aged 19, born in Ixelles on 30 March 1840, and died in Brussels on 23 July 1912, daughter of Joseph Ferdinand Toussaint, notary public in Brussels and former Member of Parliament and of Philippine Anne Catherine Joséphine Kuhne. She was also the sister of Fritz Toussaint, a painter, and of Jules Toussaint.^[5]

Later life and death

Poelaert retired in 1874 to his villa at the Grande Grille, on 363, avenue de la Reine/Koninginnelaan, in the then-rural village of Laeken. He died on 3 November 1879^[6] and was buried in Laeken Cemetery under a miniature version of his Palace of Justice.

Works

1850–1859: Congress Column in Brussels
1854–1874: Saint Catherine's Church in Brussels
1854–1909: Church of Our Lady of Laeken in Brussels, site of the Royal Crypt of the Belgian royal family
1855–1857: Restoration of the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie in Brussels, after the fire of 1855
1866–1883: Palace of Justice in Brussels

Pedestal of the Congress Column, Brussels (1850–1859)
Royal Theatre of La Monnaie, Brussels (1855–1857)
Palace of Justice, Brussels (1866–1883)
Bust of Poelaert at the Palace of Justice
Poelaert's tomb in Laeken Cemetery, Brussels
Coat of arms of the Poelaert family

References

Notes

^ Paucescu, Alexandra (4 November 2022). "A PALACE FOR JUSTICE – A never-ending Belgian story". Europe Diplomatic Magazine.
^ Vandendaele 1980, p. 166.
^ Mardaga 1994, p. 466.
^ "Palais de Justice" (in French). Belgian federal building registry. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 February 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2009.
^ MARCHAL, Edmond (1903). Biographie nationale de Belgique. Brussel.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ "A PALACE FOR JUSTICE – A never-ending Belgian story". 4 November 2022.

Bibliography

Vandendaele, Richard (1980). Poelaert et son temps (exhibition catalogue) (in French). Brussels: Crédit Communal de Belgique.
Mardaga, Pierre, ed. (1994). Le Patrimoine monumental de la Belgique: Bruxelles (PDF) (in French). Vol. 1C: Pentagone N-Z. Liège.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)