Tour Noire (Black Tower)

The Tour Noire (Zwarte Toren), or Black Tower, stands on Place Sainte-Catherine in the lower town of Brussels, Belgium, a short walk from the Grand Place and the Bourse. It is a surviving tower of the first city wall, a defensive circuit built from the early 13th century that enclosed the town on the Senne river valley and stretched for around four kilometres, with a number of towers and gates. When the second wall was built in the 14th century, the first wall lost its military role and was gradually built over by houses and workshops. The tower owes its survival to being absorbed into later buildings.

The Tour Noire is built of local sandstone in rough blocks, a rounded tower with narrow loop windows and a base that was originally part of a longer wall. In the 19th century the tower was hidden behind houses, and was rediscovered in the 1880s during the clearance of the area as part of the vaulting of the Senne and the construction of the central boulevards. It was later restored and enclosed in a protected area; a modern hotel was built around it in the late 20th century, a conservation decision that placed the medieval stonework in an unusual contemporary setting.

The nearby ruins include fragments of the wall and the early quayside, and an adjacent small garden marks the line of the old defences. The area around Place Sainte-Catherine, once the old fish port, is now a lively quarter known for its seafood restaurants and the Christmas market in winter. The tower is therefore best seen as part of a walk tracing the lost medieval harbour and walls.

Because the tower is incorporated into a private hotel, interior access is limited and visitors should expect to view it mainly from outside, from the street and from the adjoining garden space.