We are always fond of a free walking tour in a place we haven’t spent a lot of time in. What better way to find out all the gory goss about Brussels?

The four of us are really looking forward to spending the next 90 minutes with Rahim. A Jamaican expat, a History Major and a lover of Brussels who doesn’t mind spending his evenings taking tourist around the streets of Brussels. I like him immediately !

The tour is called The Dark side of Brussels provided by Legends Free Walking Tours. We chose this tour because it rated really well on Trip Advisor which is always an excellent sign and was really easy to book on the website. We all meet in the Grote Markt (the Grand Place) near the Town Hall.

The Grote Markt is beautifully lit up. And a wonderful background to start hearing about this beautiful city from a slightly different perspective.

Grote Markt goes back in history to the 12th century. This beautiful place has seen a lot of action over the last thousand years including having to be rebuilt after the bombardment of 1695.

The Bombardment you ask? Rahim provided a much more elegant explanation but here goes with my very brief and clumsy summary of events. Hopefully I am not too far away from the truth and don’t include too much fake news. So, as with most disputes of this kind it’s a complicated story to do with power and territory. The King of France, Louis XIV, wants to divert the Grand Alliance troops from a siege that is underway in Namur. So he orders his troops to fire on an area near Brussels. Louis is very clear that he doesn’t want the Grote Markt damaged or hit. I know that I am no expert at warfare but isn’t telling someone not to hit something, almost a trigger for that to in fact happen? And so sadly as the rain of fire comes down on an area not too far away, a third of the buildings in the city of Brussels are destroyed including the Grote Markt.

Its rebuilding is a priority (the rebuild takes 300 years) and it should be said that great care has been taken to ensure it has retained its original configuration, which is stunning. These marketplaces in Europe are all so lovely but unique in their own ways, and its so wonderful to see them they way they were intended without unnecessary modern day embellishments.

You can see in the photos I have referenced the leather and bakers guilds. Not up on what a guild is? A guild is a group of people whose jobs belong in the same sectors. Rahim told us stories about both these guilds. The story about the leather guild is a bit too cringe, so you’ll need to take the tour to hear about that one!

Throughout history one of the many uses for spaces like the Grote Markt was for public executions. Rahim had lots of gruesome stories about these events. To be honest, I do find these stories really depressing. I know that since the beginning of time, the idea of killing publicly has been a thing. I just don’t get it.

Which brings us to the next stop, which is just around the corner the Hotel Amigo. We noticed this hotel when we were dragging our bags through Brussels on the way to our hotel. It is in a great spot and it looks very grand.

Hotel Amigo is where all the rich and famous stay, Rahim tells us. Yes, I know why aren’t we staying here hahaha!

It’s a building that has been here a while and you’ll never believe what its former life was. It was the prison, back in the 1500’s. And like all good city setups, there is according to Rahim a tunnel that goes from under the Amigo to the Town Hall. It continues to the Kings Palace – he was judge and jury.

I should say that I do always try to verify “ facts” but this one I couldn’t, hmm. Maybe the tunnels are so secret that only people who take these tours know about them 🤣. Anyway, I always love the idea of unexpected tunnels and why let a good story be ruined by “facts”. Why the tunnels? These tunnels were there to protect the prisoners from their fellow townspeople, so they arrived into the Grote Markt unscathed and ready to be publicly executed? When Rahim was explaining this I had a flashback to the “Life of Brian” and that scene – if you’ve seen it you will know what I’m talking about..

We start up the hills of Brussels and the stories of public punishments continue. We arrive in Place Saint-Jean and Rahim regales us with stories of people being tortured and then ultimately killed after being found guilty of cheating on their partners. Talk about making sure people got the message!

At this stop is a bronze statue of a young woman. She is depicted standing upright, looking strong and courageous as she proudly faces forward. Her name as Gabrielle Petit and her final words are included “I will show them that a Belgian woman knows how to die.”

When she said these profound words she was facing a firing squad of German soldiers as they pointed their rifles at her and shot her through the heart. The date was April 1, 1916. She was executed for her role as an intelligence agent for the British Army. She was 23 years old. Her back story is unbelievable and as Rahim said she needs at least one movie to be made about her. And as suggested may happen, I fell in love a little with Gabrielle when I heard about her.

We continued to wander along the streets of this wonderful city hearing stories of the awful deeds of the people who have lived here in the past. We are still hideous to one another, so perhaps nothing has changed. We finish the official part up the top overlooking this city. There is a ferris wheel you can ride called “The View”. You can see it from most places in Brussels and it looks beautiful tonight.

It is 55 metres high and can accommodate eight passengers per cabin, of which there are 42.

To get down from the top there is an Elevator to the Sky. it takes you from uptown to downtown. Its open every day until 11.30pm and if you’ve got your bicycle it will fit in there as well.

We had a great night with Rahim, I couldn’t recommend this tour enough. It’s a bit grim in places but gives you a real sense of the city and it’s amazing history.

We loved you Belgium 🇧🇪, we’re off to Paris tomorrow 🥂.