The Town Hall of Brussels has always been considered as one of the finest 
specimens of this style of architecture in the Low Countries. The Gothic orna 
ments with which it is enriched, are not indeed by any means so highly wrought 
as those of the magnificent Town Hall of Louvain, which must be allowed to be 
the ne plus ultra of this gorgeous style. Those of the Town Hall of Brussels are, 
however, sufficiently rich to give the edifice a highly ornamented appearance. 
The most remarkable part of the building is the light and beautiful tower, which 
is 364 feet in height, and terminates in a spire of open work, surmounted by a 
Statue of St. Michael, seventeen feet high, which serves as a weathercock, whence 
it is sometimes called St. Michael’s Tower. The building of the Town Hall was 
commenced in the year 1380, and it was completed in 1442. 
The Vignettes represent a stone cross at a short distance from the city; and 
a stone group representing the Virgin Mary with the body of Christ, and angels, 
with a richly ornamented pedestal or bracket, and canopy.