Tour & Taxis and its history
The Tour & Taxis site is located in the North of Brussels, beside the Willebroek canal, where Avenue du Port and Rue Picard meet. The site totals 45 hectares and takes its name from its original owners, the princely von Thurn und Tassis family, founders of the European postal service. The site was marshland until 1897. The current building was built between 1904 and 1910 on a plot of land that belonged to the princely family at the time. The Torriani e Tassi family, originally from Bergamo, made its fortune and gained glory and nobility by organising the first postal network across the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the Empire. The founder of the dynasty, Francisco Tasso, organised a postal service between Milan and Innsbruck in 1516. The success of this postal service, provided by hundreds of messengers on horseback, unfortunately resulted in a lot of noise on the streets of Brussels, which bothered the townspeople. During a town council meeting on 15 June 1578, the authorities suggested that Francisco limited his night runs to 1200 split as follows: 600 from Porte de Halle, 200 from Porte de Schaerbeek, 150 from Porte de Namur and finally 250 from Porte de Ninove. This compromise seemed impossible to Francisco given the continuing increase in letter and parcel deliveries across Europe. Francisco decided to transfer some of his activities to Frankfurt and so took the name Franz von Tassis. The name La Tour et Tassis was used from then on in Latin countries, while Von Thurn und Taxis was used in Germanic countries.
At the end of the 19th century, the City of Brussels bought the land and decided to use it to develop its new modal distribution centre, which became a crossroads of commerce and development in the 20th century. At the beginning of the last century, several office buildings were built for the new port and the SNCB built a harbour station.
Towards the end of the eighties, the activities ceased, the buildings fell into disuse and the land was largely abandoned. There were several projects to restore the site, but none were really successful. When Project T&T bought the site in December 2001, Tour & Taxis finally saw its new future take shape. It was to be an ambitious, multifunctional and dynamic future. The site’s success and future lie in its multifunctional nature, combining housing, offices, shops, communal facilities and leisure areas all on the same site. In other words, it was the birth of a new Quarter in Brussels. The Tour & Taxis site master plan is an initiative from Project T&T, a joint venture between three property company, Extensa, Royal Properties Group and IRET. Project T&T has owned 30 hectares of the Tour & Taxis site since December 2001.
Since its purchase by Project T&T, the Tour & Taxis site has seen some of the most innovative urban projects in the history of Brussels. While renovation of the Tour & Taxis royal warehouse is being completed, “Shops” are breathing life into the site by hosting prestigious exhibitions, including ours. The appearance of the Palais des Beaux-Arts at Tour & Taxis in 2004 was the key to the success of the exhibition, which enjoys easy access thanks to a car park under surveillance on the site itself. The whole area covered by the next BRAFA (Brussels Antiques & Fine Arts Fair) that will take place from 21 to 30 January 2011, will be 133,472.5 square feet.
The Foire des Antiquaires de Belgique asbl is very happy to be participating in the development of the Tour & Taxis site once again and is thrilled with the benefits that a whole new Quarter will bring to life in urban Brussels.