Press Club Brussels Europe #WeLoveBrussels | Page 14

#WeLoveBrussels Press walk in Brussels by Maria Laura Franciosi Maria Laura Franciosi is a freelance journalist and acts as a consultant for the training of journalists. She is the Founding President of the Press Club Brussels Europe. Since 1998 she has been a senior collaborator of the European Journalism Centre. She also coordinated the media programme of the European Citizens Consultations. As honorary president of J@YS (Journalists at Your Service), she trains journalists and organises briefings and conferences. In the past, Maria Laura was a lecturer on Language and Politics at the London School of Economics (LSE) from 1967 to 1970 and at the University of Rome until 1977, after which she joined ANSA (the Italian News Agency) where she worked until 2001 in Rome, London and Brussels as bureau chief. There is a special walk devised for journalists and supported by “La Fonderie” (Rue Ransfort 27, 1080 Molenbeek), which we have followed and want to share with you. It was launched in 2015 on the occasion of “Les Journees du Patrimoine” (Heritage Days). The tour starts at La Monnaie, the Brussels opera house, which has played an important role in Belgium’s history. It was here that the “Belgian revolution” started on 25 August 1830 after the opera “The dumb girl of Portici” was performed at La Monnaie. The opera written by Daniel Auber with the libretto by Germain Delavigne and Eugene Scribe is based on the story of Masa- niello, a man of the people who started a revolution in Naples in 1647 against the ruling Bourbon king. When the character Masaniello launched his battle cry “Aux armes citoyens” from the stage followed by the choir singing “Amour sacré de la patrie” the already excited audience was enflamed and stormed out of the opera house shouting “Aux armes” against the ruling Dutch King William I of Orange. Already upset by the results of the Vienna Congress in 1815 which ended the Napoleonic era, the enraged Belgians decided to attack the newspaper “Le National” favourable to the ruling kings and then sacked and plundered the house (close to the present site of the Musical Instrument Museum) of Count Libry The Opéra de la Monnaie in Brussels 14