The former smoking room is decorated with beautiful tapestries that were custom-made for this space in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Each tapestry depicts a key event from the history of the Low Countries. The two smaller tapestries between the windows symbolize the arts and nobility.

The painter Willem Geets (1838-1919) produced the ‘cartoons’, which can still be admired today in the Palace of Justice of Brussels. The tapestries based on these cartoons were woven in wool and silk according to traditional Flemish tapestry weaving techniques in the Braquenié workshop based in Mechlin.

tapestry the arts
tapestry nobility

© Belgian Senate