Altitude One Hunderd (Hoogte Honderd/Altitude Cent)

Although not exactly at an elevation of 100 meters, the round square in the middle of an early 20th century urban development is named Altitude One Hundred Square (in Dutch: Hoogte Honderdplein, in French: Place de l’Altitude Cent). It is located in the Brussels suburb Forest (in Dutch: Vorst) and offers incredible view on downtown Brussels

The square is literally in the middle of the  Saint Augustine District or Altitude One Hundred District, an urban develpment project first proposed in 1899 by Alexandre Bertrand. From the square eight straight avenues radiate in all directions.

In the middle of the square stands the Church of Saint Augustine (Dutch: Sint-Augustinuskerk, French: Église Saint-Augustin), a roman catholic parish church. Orginally conceived as a neo-romanesque building, in 1933 the promoters opted for a second design by the architects Léon Guiannotte and André Watteyne. This time around, the Church of Saint Augustine was to become an Art Deco building in the form of Greek cross encased in a circle. The building opened in 1933.

it is one of three major churches in Brussels made of reinforced concrete (the other two are the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg and the Church of Sint John the Baptist in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean). The reinforced concrete used for the church’s construction has proven to be of very poor quality. Already in the 1960s, the church began to deteriorate. Due to water penetration, the roof began to crack and the concrete’s metal reinforcements started to rust.

There were numerous calls for demolition but the building received protected status on August, 8 1988 and eventually major renovation work was carried out between 1996 and 1998. 

Promotor Alexandre Bertrand, at the head of the Société Anonyme des Villas de Forest, owned a manson on the square but little remains of the original building. Construction of the ares roughly fell apart in three eras: before WWI, during the Interbellum and after WWII. Especially between the two World Wars a lot of stately houses were erected, often in late-eclectic, Art Deco or modernist style.