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The Palace of Coudenberg (; ) was a royal residence situated on the Coudenberg or Koudenberg (; Dutch for "Cold Hill"), a hill in what is today the Royal Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. For nearly 700 years, the Castle and then Palace of Coudenberg was the residence (and seat of power) of the counts, dukes, archdukes, kings, emperors or governors who, from the 12th century to the 18th century, exerted their sovereignty over the Duchy of Brabant and later over all or part of the Burgundian and then Spanish and Austrian Netherlands.
The palace was completely destroyed in an accidental fire that broke out on the night of 3 February 1731 and the Place Royale/Koningsplein was built between 1775 and 1782 atop its ruins. Only the underground parts remain today. After several years of excavations, the archaeological vestiges of the palace and its foundations are open to the public via the BELvue Museum.
With the creation of the Duchy of Brabant in 1183 by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the Coudenberg gained in importance and was included within the first great wall built around the city. The hunting park of the dukes led down the hill to the north, a remnant of which is now Brussels Park.
After 1430, when Brabant was annexed through inheritance by Burgundy, Philip the Good ordered the building of new wings for the palace, further embellishments to the park, and the building of the Aula Magna, a gigantic hall for royal receptions and other Medieval pageant. The first regular meetings of the States General, composed of delegates from the middle class, clergy and nobility of the Burgundian Netherlands, were held there in 1465. It was in this room that, in 1515, Duchess Margaret of Austria formally relinquished her Regent over the Habsburg Netherlands to Charles of Habsburg. It was also in this same room that, in 1555, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son, King Philip II of Spain. During his reign, Charles V ordered the creation of a large market square, known as the italic=no/italic=no, in front of the palace. In the palace itself, he instructed the building of galleries and rooms in Renaissance style and the construction of the Grand Chapel in late Gothic style, in memory of his parents, Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile.
In the 17th century, under their reign as the sovereigns of the Spanish Netherlands, the Archdukes Albert VII and Isabella established their court on the Coudenberg. The archdukes restored the façade of the palace, transformed the buildings and refitted the apartments and gardens. For the protection of the Archduchess, as she made her way to her devotions in the cathedral (this being the height of the Wars of Religion), the street that skirts the Aula Magna and the chapel was extended almost as far as the Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula (now Brussels' cathedral), and renamed the italic=no/italic=no ("Isabella Street"). As art lovers, the archdukes brought to their court the best artists of the time, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens among them, to decorate the palace with their works.
After the fire, the court moved to the Palace of Orange-Nassau, on the site of today's Palace of Charles of Lorraine, which from then on was known as the "New Court". Funds were not available for rebuilding, so for more than forty years, the old palace remained in a state of ruin, known as the Cour brûlée ("Burnt Court"). Several projects for the redevelopment of this space were proposed, including the reconstruction of a palace, which did not go beyond the stage of sketches, for lack of money. In 1769, the idea germinated to clear and level the ruins of the Place des Bailles and to convert it into an esplanade intended for military parades. The plan was on the verge of completion in 1772, when another project rendered it obsolete.
It was only in 1774 that Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands, proposed replacing the ruins with a monumental royal square inspired by French models such as the Place Stanislas in Nancy (1755) and the Place Royale in Reims (1759), of which it is almost an exact replica. The project was approved that same year by Empress Maria Theresa, who authorised the demolition. The first draft of the project, designed by the engineers-architects Louis-Joseph Baudour and had planned to keep the Gothic chapel of the former palace, which had been spared by the fire. Due to the architectural clash with the surrounding neoclassical buildings, however, it was pulled down.
Around the Place Royale, one can find many museums and cultural institutions: the BELvue Museum, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) (the entrance of which is through the Old England building), and the Magritte Museum. There are a number of other notable buildings on the Coudenberg including the Court of Audit of Belgium; the Royal Chapel, built in 1760–61 with a Louis XVI-style interior; and the Palace of Charles of Lorraine. Other major tourist attractions are located within walking distance: Brussels Park, the Royal Palace, and the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula.
The preserved remains presently visitable comprise the cellars of the main palace, the rooms underlying the main banqueting hall in the Aula Magna, as well as the warehouse space that underlay the chapel. On the other side of the Rue Isabelle, all along its length lay the house of the influential Counts of Hoogstraeten, currently at an advanced stage of excavation, with a view to later opening to visitors, alongside the existing remains.
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