Mechelen Hof van Savoye 2 9-06-2012 15-28-09

The Hof van Savoye (Court of

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Sa ...

) or Palace of Margaret of Austria is an early 16th-century building in

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. It was one of the first

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

buildings in Northern Europe.

Archduchess Margaret of Austria Archduchess Margaret of Austria (german: Margarete; french: Marguerite; nl, Margaretha; es, Margarita; 10 January 1480 – 1 December 1530) was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 to 1530. She was the fir ...

, Governor of

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, was granted a house located in the ''Korte Maagdenstraat'' (Virgins Short Street),It is not uncommon for Dutch language street names to distinct a shorter from a longer stretch. Less usual, the short ''Korte Maagdenstraat'' held its name when the corresponding name for a longer street was abandoned. but she found it too small and started an ambitious expansion campaign in 1507. From 1517 to 1530 the architect Rombout II Keldermans furthered the project, along the ''Keizerstraat'' (Emperor Street) modifying what became the rear wing, which faces the Palace of

Margaret of York Margaret of York (3 May 1446 – 23 November 1503)—also by marriage known as Margaret of Burgundy—was Duchess of Burgundy as the third wife of Charles the Bold and acted as a protector of the Burgundian State after his death. She was a daugh ...

, her step grandmother who had died in 1503. Margaret raised her nephew Charles, the later Holy Roman Emperor, in her palace, at which she lived until her death in 1530. Historian

Eric Ives Eric William Ives (12 July 1931 – 25 September 2012) was a British historian who was an expert on the Tudor period, and a university administrator. He was Emeritus Professor of English History at the University of Birmingham. Early life ...

describes the inner courtyard and southern wing of the palace, still much like

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key f ...

must have seen it during the stage of her upbringing at Margaret's court. It stood a model for the

Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. ...

as rebuilt for Anne in the 1530s.Ives holds Anne's uncertain birth year at about 1501, in which case Anne had nearly Charles' age and young teenagers lived at the Hof van Savoye. If she was born approximately 6 years later, around 1507, she would have stayed at the Palace of (the late) Margaret of York across the street that already referred to an emperor long before Charles came to that title. In 1546 the explosion of the city gate that held the gunpowder stock, the ''Zandpoort'' (Sand Gate), brought repairable damage to the palace. It was owned by the city until 1561. That year, it received a new calling as the residence of

Granvelle Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (20 August 151721 September 1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, was a Bisontin ( Free Imperial City of Besançon) statesman, made a cardinal, who followed his father as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsbu ...

, the first Archbishop of Mechelen, and right-hand man of Philip II. In 1609 the building was bought back by the city and served as the headquarters of the Great Council of the Netherlands from 1616 until 1795. The ''Hof van Savoye'' became known as the ''Gerechtshof'' (Court of Justice), because it houses the lower courts (Criminal and Civil Court, Justice of the Peace, and Police Court).

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:* :* Houses completed in 1530 Buildings and structures in Mechelen Renaissance architecture in Belgium {{Belgium-struct-stub

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