Tervueren Palimpsest

Abstract

As a minor replica of - or counterpoint to - the royal sites surrounding Madrid, various locations in the Southern Netherlands served a similar function during the period of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs: the palace of Coudenberg was the residence located in Brussels, while places like Binche, Mariemont and Tervueren housed residences for leisure and as a representation of power. Of all those, little remains today: palaces suffered fires, wars, lack of upkeep and revolutions. The case of Tervueren, today a Flemish municipality at the outskirts of Brussels, is peculiar in the sense that the place has kept the memory of a royal -or dynastic- site for several centuries. However, there were two discontinuities, two ruptures. King Leopold II dramatically changes the function of the place, instead of a palatial residence the locality hosts today the Africamuseum. Furthermore, the contemporary administrative reorganization has not only separated the territory from the Belgian capital but based on nationalism, also erases the centuries-old memory of the place, its palimpsest.