Early history

Originally, the gallery was a part of the Marché de la Madeleine/Magdalenamarkt complex, a covered market also designed by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer. The facade on the Rue de la Madeleine/Magdalenastraat, in a Flemish Baroque style, antedates the construction of the gallery behind it. This front dates from 1763 and was recovered from the Hôtel des Grandes Messageries, a town house situated on that site.

The gallery owes its name to an investor named Pierre Bortier, who had acquired land between the Rue Duquesnoy/Duquesnoystraat and the Rue Saint-Jean/Sint-Jansstraat, made available by the demolition of the former Hôpital Saint-Jean/Sint-Janshospitaal. He proposed to the Brussels' authorities to build the Marché de la Madeleine/Magdalenamarkt. This covered market had its main entrance on the Rue Duquesnoy. Starting from the Hôtel des Grandes Messageries, located on the Rue de la Madeleine, the gallery passed along the rounded southern end of the market hall on the level of its first floor, and ended on the Rue Saint-Jean.

20th and 21st centuries

The Madeleine market was demolished in 1957 and replaced by a modern event hall, leaving only the original facade in place. The Bortier Gallery was thus detached from the market building. Very degraded, it was renovated in 1974 and again around 2010.

The place is now well known to lovers of literature and old books, being almost entirely occupied, with the exception of an art gallery, with stalls and second-hand booksellers. Jean-Baptiste Moens, known as the father of philately, ran a shop in the Bortier Gallery from 1853 onwards.

Bibliography

• Willaumez, Marie-France (1983). Les passages-galeries du XIXe siècle à Bruxelles (in French). Brussels: Ministère de la Communauté française. pp. 49–56.
• Willaumez, Marie-France (1994). Trois visages de passages au XIXe siècle. Bruxelles, ville d'Art et d'Histoire (in French). Vol. 7. Brussels: Éditions de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale.