Flower Carpet | |
---|---|
Status | Active |
Frequency | Biennial |
Location(s) | City of Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region |
Country | Belgium |
Inaugurated | 1971 |
Most recent | August 15, 2022 |
Next event | August 15, 2024 |
The Flower Carpet (French : Tapis de Fleurs; Dutch : Bloementapijt) is a biennial event in Brussels in which volunteers from around Belgium convene at the Grand-Place/Grote Markt, the historic centre of the city, to weave a carpet-like tapestry out of colourful begonias. [1] The event takes place every other August, coordinating with Assumption Day. [2] Nearly a million flowers are required to create the ephemeral 1,800 m2 (19,000 sq ft) carpet. [3]
The first Flower Carpet was created in 1971 by the Ghent landscape architect Etienne Stautemans in an effort to advertise his work, and due to its popularity, the tradition continued in subsequent years. [4] The Tapis de Fleurs de Bruxelles Association was then created at the initiative of the City of Brussels in cooperation with the Province of Brabant and Les Franc-Bourgeois (a central Brussels traders’ association). The new association laid down the regulations; the event was to be held every two years, for three to four days on the weekend of 15 August and could be enhanced by sound and lighting, fireworks, a jazz concert and other traditional folk entertainments. [5]
Starting in 1986, the event has been regularly held biannually, each time under a different theme, with the Flower Carpet now attracting a large number of local and international visitors. [3]
The tapestry always exhibits tuberous begonias (Begonia tuberosa grandiflora), one of Belgium's major exports since 1860, [6] and occasionally dahlias. [7] More than a hundred volunteers are needed to set up, on a life-size drawing of the transparent and micro-perforated plastic mat, the decoration of grasses and bark where the flowers will be placed, produced on special order by horticulturists in the Ghent region in East Flanders.
Each year of the Flower Carpet, organisers select a theme for inspiration. [2]
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region, located less than 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the south. Historically Dutch-speaking, Brussels saw a language shift to French from the late 19th century. Nowadays, the Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual in French and Dutch, although French is the majority language and lingua franca. Brussels is also increasingly becoming multilingual. English is spoken widely and many migrants and expatriates speak other languages as well.
Ghent is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, after Brussels and Antwerp. It is a port and university city.
The economy of Belgium is a highly developed, high-income, mixed economy.
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Mechelen is a city and municipality in the province of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Mechelen proper, some quarters at its outskirts, the hamlets of Nekkerspoel (adjacent) and Battel, as well as the villages of Walem, Heffen, Leest, Hombeek, and Muizen. The river Dyle (Dijle) flows through the city, hence it is often referred to as the Dijlestad.
Lodève is a commune in the department of Hérault, in the region of Occitania, southern France. It is a subprefecture of the department. The derivation of the city's name is from Gaulish Luteva, composed of lut-, swamp, mud + suffix -eva. It might therefore translate as the muddy place or the swamp city. This mud could be a clay, called argillite, which was use during ancient history to produce pottery.
The Savonnerie manufactory was the most prestigious European manufactory of knotted-pile carpets, enjoying its greatest period c. 1650–1685; the cachet of its name is casually applied to many knotted-pile carpets made at other centers. The manufactory had its immediate origins in a carpet manufactory established in a former soap factory on the Quai de Chaillot downstream of Paris in 1615 by Pierre DuPont, who was returning from the Levant.
Hinduism is a minority religion in Belgium. According to the PEW 2014, Hinduism is also the fastest growing religion in Belgium. Attempts have been done by the Hindu Forum of Belgium (HFB) to make Hinduism an officially-recognized religion in Belgium.
Charles François Antoine Morren, was a Belgian botanist and horticulturist, and Director of the Jardin botanique de l’Université de Liège.
The Grote Markt is the central square of Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium. It is situated between the Oude Markt and the Rector De Somerplein and near both the Bondgenotenlaan and the Muntstraat.
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The Royal Tapestry Factory is a manufacturing plant located in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in 1720.
Brussels tapestry workshops produced tapestry from at least the 15th century, but the city's early production in the Late Gothic International style was eclipsed by the more prominent tapestry-weaving workshops based in Arras and Tournai. In 1477 Brussels, capital of the duchy of Brabant, was inherited by the house of Habsburg; and in the same year Arras, the prominent center of tapestry-weaving in the Low Countries, was sacked and its tapestry manufacture never recovered, and Tournai and Brussels seem to have increased in importance.
Richard van Orley or Richard van Orley II was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, printmaker. His collaboration with his brother Jan van Orley, who was one of the major figures of Flemish tapestry design in the late 17th and early 18th century, as a tapestry cartonnier is not proven. For an essential study on the artist, see: Alain Jacobs, Richard van Orley Bruxelles 1663–1732, Brussels, Royal Library 2003, 173 pages. Richard van Orley was an important engraver and is particularly known for his prints after drawings by Augustin Coppens documenting the devastating effect of the Bombardment of Brussels by French troops in 1695.
The Franses Tapestry Archive and Library in London is devoted to the study of European tapestries and figurative textiles. It is the world’s largest academic research resource on the subject.
The following lists events that happened during 1905 in the Kingdom of Belgium.
Belgium–Spain relations are the bilateral relations between Belgium and Spain. Belgium has an embassy in Madrid and four consulates general in: Madrid, Barcelona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Alicante. Spain has an embassy and a consulate in Brussels. The relations between both countries are defined mainly by their membership in the European Union and by being allies in NATO, as well as belonging to numerous international organizations, which makes their relations have ample development in the framework of them.
A flower carpet is a design made on the ground with flowers or flower petals arranged in patterns. Flower carpet events happen in many places around the world.
The following lists events that happened during 1889 in the Kingdom of Belgium.
Events in the year 1925 in Belgium.