Palais de Justice

Brussels’s Palace of Justice was aptly built, between 1866 and 1880, on top of Galenberg or ‘gallows hill’, a popular place for executions up until the 16th century, and in its heyday was the largest building in the world. Designed by Joseph Poelaert, the project forced entire neighbourhoods from their homes and made Poelaert a national figure of hate — he died insane four years before its completion.

The building is still used by lawyers meeting their clients, but most of the vast rooms are wasted space. (The government has been trying toying with the idea of converting it into a theatre or exhibition space for years.) Its exterior has been swathed in scaffolding for years, but you can still wander around the inner atriums and marvel at the scale of the Corinthian, Ionic and Doric columns — thick as oak tree trunks — and the mixture of ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Greek-Roman architectural styles.