For centuries, the outline of a church towered above the popular neighbourhood of Saint-Géry/Sint-Gorik. In 1798, it was destroyed and replaced by a public square featuring an obelisk fountain from Grimbergen Abbey. In 1881, architect Adolphe Vanderheggen, who designed the covered market in Chaussée d'Etterbeek/Etterbeeksesteenweg, was commissioned to build a similar structure here. He decided to incorporate the fountain into a neo-Renaissance-style building. Inside, a network of slender octagonal columns supports the metal frame, whose roof trusses form a three-centre arch. Flat iron circles decorate the spandrels on the arches. The hall has a metal-framed glass roof, a standard way of lighting covered markets. Market gardeners sold their produce here until 1973. Nowadays, the Halles Saint-Géry/Sint-Gorikshallen are a centre for the promotion of cultural heritage (architecture, town planning, urban cultures), under the aegis of the Brussels-Capital Region. With exhibitions, meetings, conferences/talks, performances, concerts and other major events, the Halles/Hallen showcase Brussels' characteristic hospitality on a daily basis. (Listed 26/01/1987)