Sablon (Brussels)

The Sablon (French) or Zavel (Dutch) is a neighbourhood and hill in the historic upper town of Brussels. At its heart are the twin squares of the larger Grand Sablon (French for Large Sablon) or Grote Zavel square in the northwest and the smaller Petit Sablon (French for Small Sablon) or Kleine Zavel square and garden in the southeast, divided by the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon.

The Sablon lies near the Mont des Arts neighbourhood, and lay not far outside the first city walls of Brussels. It was originally an unused open space, with areas of wetlands, grassland and sand, where a hermit made his home. The words sablon and zavel both mean a fine-grained sand, halfway between silt and sand. The Saint John Hospital (Dutch: Sint-Jansgasthuis, French: Hôpital Saint-Jean) used the area as a cemetery in the thirteenth century, having run out of space in their own cemetery.

In 1304, the hospital sold the land to the crossbowmen's guild. They built a small chapel on the site dedicated to Our Lady, completed in 1318, setting off the transformation of the area. The chapel became renowned and began to draw pilgrims and the pious when, in 1348, a woman brought to the chapel a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary that had been stolen from Antwerp. The statue of Mary was then solemnly placed in the chapel and venerated as the patron of the guild. The guild also promised to hold an annual procession, called an Ommegang, in which the statue was carried through Brussels. This Ommegang of Brussels developed into an important religious and civil event in the calendar of Brussels.

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