One of my favourite things about Brussels is how dizzyingly diverse the city is. There is space for every culture to express itself and sometimes you feel like you’ve stumbled into a foreign city, just by turning the corner.
The city has a long history of Portuguese immigration and the area around Place Flagey is something of a ‘Little Lisbon’. It’s fitting, therefore, that on a corner of the square you can find this memorial to Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. It is a giant metal head set on some typical Portuguese pavement, known as calçada portuguesa.
I love how random it is and how nicely it represents that Brussels is a home for many different cultures.
The statue was damaged by storms a few years ago but has been restored and returned to its home. A fitting metaphor, perhaps, for the resilience of Brussels’ immigrant communities, which make the city a true mosaic of cultures.
