The (French, ; "Ball Game Square") or (Dutch, ; "Foxes' Square") is a square in the heart of the Marolles/Marollen district of Brussels, Belgium. Since 1873, it has held a famous flea market, known as the Old Market.
The area around the square is characterised by the presence of restaurants and typical Brussels cafés. It can be accessed from Brussels-Chapel railway station, the metro and premetro (underground tram) station Porte de Hal/Hallepoort (on lines 2, 4, 6 and 10), as well as the bus stop / (on lines 48 and 52).
As its French name indicates, the Place du Jeu de Balle () was originally intended for the practice of ' or , a traditional ball game similar to modern handball that was particularly popular in 19th-century Brussels. Its Dutch name, (), refers to the ' (; meaning "fox" in Dutch), a former locomotive and machinery factory established in 1837, whose site the square was built on, and to which the / is nowadays the only other reference.
The Place du Jeu de Balle was laid out in 1853, at the same time as the neighbouring /. The factory was purchased by the City of Brussels in 1853 and demolished in 1858 following the completion of the Rue Blaes. The new square incorporated parts of the former industrial site, with the / forming its north side and the / its south. The work was completed in 1863, coinciding with the construction of the fire station of the Brussels Fire Department.
In 1873, Brussels' municipal council decided to transfer the daily flea market, known as the Old Market (, ), which, in the words of a municipal councillor, "considerably harmed the appearance of the new central boulevards", from the Place Anneessens/Anneessensplein to the Place du Jeu de Balle, a function the square has kept to this day. A public bathhouse, designed by the architect , was built at the centre of the square in 1902âÂÂ03, which was later replaced by a larger complex in the nearby /.
In the 1960s, redevelopment plans for the Marolles/Marollen district proposed by the architect Robert Courtois envisioned new housing blocks and green spaces while preserving the square and the Rue Blaes. The plans were partially implemented but revised in 1979 to favour smaller-scale interventions that maintained the historic street layout.