Brussels: area by area: The Lower Town – La Bourse I

At the stock exchange, the decorative frieze of allegorical statues in various stages of nudity, some of them by Rodin, forms a sort of idealization of the common man.

Trading here, as at most European stock exchanges, is via electronic computer screens, meaning that there is no longer a trading floor. Next door lies Bruxella 1238, an archaeological museum where you can inspect the excavation of a 13th-century church.