You could easily miss it as you wander through the streets of downtown Brussels. A plaque on a small house in Rue Philippe de Champagne 38 commemorates the Philippines’ national hero José Risal, who lived here in 1890 while working on his second political novel El Filibusterismo.
He had been living in Paris, but left the city because of the high cost of living and vibrant social life. He chose Brussels because it was cheap and boring.
He enjoyed the summer mood in Brussels and fell in love with his landlady’s niece Susanne. The following year he moved to Ghent, where his novel was published. It helped to inspire the Philippine uprising against Spanish rule, during which Risal was executed.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
