Forest Town Hall

The Town Hall (French: Hôtel de Ville, Dutch: Stadhuis ) of Forest is an Art Deco building located in that municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. Qualified as a prototype of Brussels' Art Deco, this building illustrates the leading role the style played in public architecture during the interwar period.[1]

Forest Town hall

History

Built on the grounds of a previous Town Hall (1828) and in the place of a previous parsonage (1734), the building was designed by architect Jean-Baptiste Dewin (1873–1948) in 1925.[1] The first stone was officially laid on 19 May 1935 and the building was inaugurated on 9 July 1938. The building has important interior and exterior decorations made by such artists as Victor Rousseau, Georges Baltus, Canneel, Stoffyn and Tricot.

During World War II, the Town Hall suffered from bombings in Forest that lead to serious damage to the facade and the entrance portal to Chaussée de Bruxelles/Brusselsesteenweg.[2]

On 22 October 1992, the exterior, interior and furniture of the building were classified as protected cultural monuments by the Royal Commission for Monuments and Landscapes. Forest's Town Hall is also on the list of protected immovable heritage monuments of The Department of Monuments and Landscapes of Brussels-Capital Region.[3][4]

See also

References
  1. Françoise Aubry, Jos Vandenbreeden et France Vanlaethem, L'architecture en Belgique : Art nouveau, art déco et modernisme, Éditions Racine, 2006, p. 259.
  2. "Het Gemeentehuis — Vorst - 1190". www.vorst.irisnet.be (in Dutch).
  3. (PDF) http://doc.erfgoed.brussels/REGISTRE/AG/018_020.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. (PDF) http://doc.erfgoed.brussels/REGISTRE/AG/012_001.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)


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