ABSTRACT
Charles Buls, mayor of Brussels in the last two decades of the 19th century, published an Esthétique des villes (1894), where he emphasized the importance of cultural heritage in the process of modernization. The question of cultural heritage is further discussed through the famous Grand Place in Brussels and touched upon by two essays written by Joris-Karl Huysman. Chapter 19 ends with a short characterization of the writer Jean Paul Baronian, who not only reflected on how city squares shaped his own personality, but who also wrote a novel on the flea market, Place du Jeu de Balle, where, by definition, a sort of everyday cultural heritage is performed.
