Hotel Le Plaza, Brussels 3.13

The Hotel Le Plaza is one of the last independent hotels in Brussels, and also one of the most ancient. It was built in the early 1930s in a Louis XVI style, in the heart of Brussels.ArchitectureMichel Polak, to whom the architecture was entrusted, found inspiration in the style of the Hôtel George-V in Paris, ensuring by its concrete ossature a remarkable solidity. The frontage was covered with French stones. The interior was designed to reflect the ideas of brightness and splendour: high ceilings, large corridors, big light rooms, several naturally lighted bathrooms, a majestic stairways covering 8 floors, decorated with stained glass windows and fringed with wrought iron hand-rails...HistoryUnder the reign of King Leopold II, Brussels was remodelled with large boulevards and green avenues. Mayor Jules Anspach (1829–1879) contributed to the transformation of the urban landscape of the capital by the realization of the thoroughfare from the North station to the South station.The Hotel Le Plaza was built and opened its doors in 1930. Very soon, prestigious guests came to the Hotel le Plaza, which became one of the symbols of the Brussels luxury hotel trade. In 1940, during the occupation, the hotel was placed under the authority of the German troops just as the great hotels of that time. The military commander for Belgium and the North of France took his quarters there. Premeditating its destruction, the Hotel Le Plaza was, exactly like the Palace of Justice, made into a booby-trap by the Germans, before the arrival of the Allied Forces. When it exploded, it killed two British Army officers: Captain George Hayton (age 32) and Major Anthony Wright (age 30) and destroyed the hotel's winter garden and sumptuous stained glass dome. Hopefully the rest of the hotel was not damaged. Shortly after the liberation, the British general staff occupied in its turn the prestigious palace: Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Luns, who was secretary general of the NATO from 1971 to 1984, stayed there regularly.