The Functionality of Street Art

Between 1975 and 1976, the Belgian bank Dexia decided to build a new headquarters from the ground up. The construction work had created a massive construction site, and instead of using traditional wooden barriers to hide the building, they decided to turn them into a work of art. The artwork is called “Les Palissades,” or “The Palisades,” created by Belgian artist Paul de Gobert, who was born in Brussels in 1949.

The result was a sort of “painted street” about 100 meters long. Paul de Gobert depicted 1970s Brussels: ordinary people, workers, buildings, monuments, everyday scenes, and a few famous figures.

This was the first institutional urban art project—a true pioneer—and received extensive media coverage at the time. Its success was such that the bank decided to preserve all the wooden murals, which had been on display at various locations.

Fifty years later, the panels were restored and brought to this new space next to the Coimbra-B train station in Portugal. The choice of location is no coincidence: Praça Europa is one of the city’s new gateways, connected to the future Metrobus, and aims to bring together mobility, public space, culture, and a sense of European connection. Brussels, naturally, is a symbolic choice for this message.

An interesting irony: the original purpose of the paintings was to conceal a construction project and make the construction site more pleasant. In Coimbra, however, the opposite is true. The former “Les Palissades” no longer hide a construction project; instead, they have themselves become part of the architecture and landscape of the new space.

Coimbra has gained a work of urban art with half a century of history, which began as a temporary solution for a construction site and ended up becoming a permanent piece of public art. It was unveiled on July 11, 2026, during the inauguration of Praça Europa.