Did you know that the City Hall of Brussels has an asymmetrical façade ?
Those wandering around the Grand Place in Brussels may well have the feeling that they are in a giant open-air museum. So many tourists from all across the world have already photographed its façades, which look like they are straight out of the Middle Ages.
Of course, the real showpiece on the Grand Place is the City Hall, which was built in a Gothic style during the 15th century. Look more closely and you will see that the tower on Brussels' city hall is not nicely in the middle as you might expect.
A persistent legend claims that the architect, upon discovering this fact, climbed to the top and jumped to his death, on the spot now marked with a star.
In fact this star is simply the ‘zero point in Brussels’, from which the distance to the capital is measured.
And the reason that the city hall does indeed look asymmetrical these days has more to do with the fact that during the 15th century the building was designed over a longer period by a series of different architects, each of whom was forced to consider the very boggy foundations.