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The Grand-Place (former spelling: Grand'Place) is the main square of the historical centre of the Belgian city of Mons.

The Grand-Place, which is very spacious and similar to other town squares in Flanders, is located next to the pedestrian shopping street and the belfry. The edges of the square are accessible by car, but it is forbidden to park or to drive through the centre. Each year, on Trinity Sunday, it is the stage of the fight called Lumeçon, a fight between Saint Georges and a dragon.^[1]

The Grand-Place is cobbled in the style of old cities and is home to many cafes, restaurants, as well as a chapel and the City Hall that dominates the squar with its huge structure, stature, construction (emblematic presence). The City Hall, as well as the theatre, respond to its historical traditions, like a master plan to follow. We can also admire a wrought iron statuette that was inserted into the Town Hall's facade at an unknown date. It represents a monkey,^[2] that has so often been stroked by the inhabitant of Mons and tourists from all over the world that its skull is polished.

History edit

Executions of criminals have taken place on the Grand-Place of Mons. In 1791, before their sentences were carried out,^[3] Alexandre Buisseret and Félix-François Gérin (two accomplices of the robber Moneuse) were exhibited respectively for six and two hours. They were fastened to a post placed on a scaffold, in view of the population. A sign in large letters over their heads displayed their names, their professions, their address, the reason of their condemnation and the judgment given against them.

On Friday, 5 June 1807, the guillotine was erected in the lower part of the Grand-Place, near the Rue d'Havré, for the execution of eight convicted persons, la bande à Boulanger. Those were hooded and were brought by cart. The younger convicts were guillotined first and the leader of the gang, Jean-Joseph Boulanger, last.^[4] Mons was at that time under Napoleon's regime.

On 16 June 1846, Euphrasie Deroux was executed there for infanticide of her two-year-old daughter.^[5] Originally from Montignies-lez-Lens, she was the last woman to be guillotined in Belgium.^[6]

On 19 July 1851, Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé was also executed. He had been condemned for having poisoned his brother-in-law with nicotine.^[7]^[8]

The monkey edit

Several centuries old, the exact origin of the presence of this monkey hanging next to the porch, on the facade of the Town Halll, is unknown. There are 3 theories: the masterpiece of a blacksmith, the sign of a small café,^[9] or a pillory for "unruly" children. The only sure thing is that it has become the lucky charm of the city of Mons, if we stroke his skull of the left hand. A legend that has been fabricated entirely by Paul Heupgen in 1930^[10].

The Lumeçon edit

Once a year, on Trinity Sunday, the Lumeçon takes place on the Grand-Place. It is a tradition^[11] going back to the Middle Ages, when the confraternity of Saint George was expected to participate in the procession and to relate the life of their patron saint. The most emblematic episode is his fight against the dragon and that was performed as a holy mystery within the procession itself. Having become popular and noisy, disturbing the order required for the procession, the confraternity was excluded from the route and had to go into exile on the square to perform the fight, which still explains the spatio-temporal difference between the two events. The confraternity would be reintegrated into the procession during the second part of the 20th century. This tradition gathers the adults, as well as the children, who enjoy a copy adapted to their age on the Sunday of the Feast of Corpus Christi, when they grab the horsehair placed at the end of the dragon's tail. Tradition regards this as a sign of good luck. The word "Lumeçon" derives from "limaçon" (snail): the participants of the fight spin in opposite directions, giving the visual effect of a snail shell. The current word shows change of time and popular practice.

Gallery edit

Grand-Place
	La Grand-Place de Mons
Type	rectangular
Location	Mons, Hainaut
Coordinates	lat : 50.454688 long: 3.952235

The Town Hall, and behind it on the left, is the belfry
The fountain
The fall fair
At the end of the Grand-Place, the beginning of the rue de Nimy and the Sainte-Elisabeth church
General view
Some renovated facades
The house known as the Blanc Lévrier
The former Saint-Georges chapel
The house known of the Toison d'Or
The former Hotel of the Crown
The Town Hall
The royal Theatre