elegant openwork ogival bays and adorned with a profusion of arcades, parapets and gargoyles, and ends with a remarkable openwork spire enhanced with gilding and surmounted by the statue of Saint Michael, the patron saint of the City of Brussels, slaying a dragon or demon. Statue of Saint Michael The statue of Saint Michael is a work by Michel de Martin Van Rode, and was placed on the tower in 1454 or 1455. It was restored several times before being removed in the 1990s and replaced by a copy. The original is kept in the Brussels City Museum, located in the King's House or Bread House building across the Grand-Place. This statue is made of arranged metal plates and not brassware. Up close, it looks clumsy and ill-proportioned, but these distortions disappear when viewed from afar, from which it appears elegantly proportioned. The dragon symbolises the Devil or Satan according to the Apocalypse: Revelation, 12, 9: "Thus was overthrown the great Dragon, the primitive Serpent, called Devil and Satan." Revelation, 20, 2: "I saw another angel come down from heaven: he held in his hand the key of the abyss and a great chain. He mastered the Dragon, the primitive serpent, who is none other than the Devil and Satan." Main facade The main facade consists of two asymmetrical wings framing the tower and terminated by corner turrets. Each wing consists of arcades, a balcony, two stories pierced by large mullioned windows and is surmounted by a high saddleback roof pierced by numerous hipped dormers. The octagonal corner turrets have several levels whose faces are decorated with trefoil arches. Each level ends with eight gargoyles arranged radially and is surmounted by a walkway with an openwork parapet. The last level is crowned by a stone spire decorated with foliage and surmounted by a weather vane. The facade is decorated with numerous statues representing the local nobility (such as the Dukes and Duchesses of Brabant and knights of the Noble Houses of Brussels), saints, and allegorical figures. The present sculptures are mainly 19th- and 20th-century reproductions or creations; the original 15th-century ones are also in the Brussels City Museum. Each of these statues rests on a historiated corbels and is sheltered under a finely chiselled stone canopy surmounted by a pyramid-shaped stone pinnacle decorated with foliage pattern and topped with a finial. Portal The base of the tower is pierced by