Tour & Taxis (, ) is a large former industrial site in Brussels, Belgium. It is situated on the Brussels Canal in the City of Brussels, just north-west of the city centre, immediately adjacent to Laeken and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and about west from the Northern Quarter business district.
The site is composed of large warehouses and offices surrounding a former freight station called the Maritime Station (, ), and its spacious central hall known as the (, ). The main buildings on the site are made of brick, glass and wrought iron, and are prime examples of 19th-century industrial architecture.
Though the site was long disused following its loss of importance as a shipping and customs hub, it has been partially restored, and is now used for large cultural events, which have included Couleur Café Festival, the Brussels Design Market, , Art Brussels, The Color Run Belgium and Salon du Chocolat, as well as for office space.
History
Origins: Thurn und Taxis family
Over the long history of the swampy lands that originally constituted the site, certain parcels belonged to the Thurn und Taxis (or Tassis) German noble family. Philip the Fair of Burgundy promoted Frans Von Tassis to postmaster in 1504; a position Tassis also held for Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, beginning in 1489. Francisco moved the family to Brussels by 1516, and from there they organised the first international postal service. The imperial postal service linked the wealthy Low Countries to the Spanish court, and served the Holy Roman Empire and the rest of Europe. The horse-based postal service would be based in Brussels for nearly two centuries before moving to Frankfurt, Germany, in 1704.
The fields in were used as pasture for the family's horses. The family gave their name to a small road that crossed through the area. This was rendered into French as Tour et Taxis, and would give its name to the area after its transition into a busy port.
Industrialisation
Along with much of the rest of Europe, Belgium experienced intense economic and industrial growth during the "long nineteenth century". The Willebroek Canal, which had originally been constructed in the 1550s and 1560s, took on increased importance in Belgium's global trade over the course of the 1800s, as it connects Brussels to the Scheldt River and ultimately the North Sea. In 1895, the Tour & Taxis site was selected by the Belgian State and the City of Brussels as the location for a new commercial station along the Brussels Canal. Construction of the Tour & Taxis industrial complex, spread over of land, officially began on 22 July 1900, with King Leopold II present for the inaugural festivities.
Tour & Taxis was one of the first multi-modal freight transport platforms in the world. Frédéric Bruneel served as the main engineer for the project, while , Constant Bosmans and Henri Vandeveld worked as architects. Central to the site's functionality was the Maritime Station (, ), a freight station constructed by Bruneel beginning in 1902 and open from 1907. The expansive steel and glass structure was designed to efficiently receive goods by land, water and rail. Major sources of cargo included sugar, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and chocolate. Customs and excise duties were then collected on-site via the Customs House (, ), and goods were stored in bonded warehouses—the Public Depot (, ) and the Royal Depot (, )—before their redistribution. The Maritime Station was controlled by the Belgian State Railways (and, from 1926, the National Railway Company of Belgium), while the bonded warehouses were managed by the (and later, the Port of Brussels).
The buildings have been recognised for the quality of their construction. According to La Fonderie, Brussels Museum of Industry and Labour, the Tour & Taxis site is a "catalogue of architecture and civil engineering", as well as "a testament to the skills of Belgian engineers and workers, and their mastery of steel, iron, stone, glass and concrete." Their appearance was influenced by both the Flemish Renaissance and the Art Nouveau style characteristic of early 20th-century Brussels.