Here is something that will interest those who dream of visiting a Belgium off the beaten track and far from the main tourist attractions: Pierre Guelff, Belgian journalist, writer and columnist at RTBF, has just published "Surprenante, curieuse et mystérieuse Belgique" (Surprising, curious and mysterious Belgium), in the Curio Guides collection.
As it is essential to know the symbolism of monuments if you are to 'decipher' the building and understand its meaning.
Take the Grand Place in Brussels, for example. You may have walked past it dozens of times, but did you realise that it offers a real opportunity to explore the secrets of esotericism, symbolism, and perhaps alchemy, as if their protagonists, the architects and sculptors of the time, had wanted to pass on their knowledge to those who took the trouble to study it. Not far from there, in the Brussels Park, the intriguing inscription VITRIOL may catch your attention if you know that this word struck a particular chord in the minds of alchemists and their search for the philosopher's stone.
Pierre Guelff also invites his readers to undertake an anthropological and historical investigation of beliefs, pilgrimages, hidden treasures and processions. Find out all about the power of candles, labyrinths, giants, legendary monsters, miraculous springs, spinning stones, haunted houses, Devil's paths, burial mounds, phallic cults, strange burial sites and other mysterious places.