A brief history
The Majolica looks out on the Café. It was once a pastry shop where ladies could keep an eye on their husbands playing billiards down in the Café.
It is also said that German officers ran their office from here during the occupation.
The Majolica inspires film producers as well. The Australian film director, Paul Cox, made a film about Vincent Van Gogh here. For the shooting, the Majolica was converted into a typical shady night-club in the South of France, where Vincent is said to have spent his last years. The Flemish Community considered the Majolica – and where else – to be the perfect location for an exhibition of majolica glazed tiles.
The ‘Blauwe Maandag Compagnie’ celebrated the succes of their Shakespeare marathon, ‘Ten Oorlog’, here.
For the lucky people that work here, this is their canteen. It is also the place where receptions take place and serves as a meeting point during festivals.
Majolica: [Italian, from the former name of the island of Majorca] A fine kind of Renaissance Italian earthenware with coloured decoration on an opaque white glaze (…) (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)
Facts
When the Café was rebuilt in 1923, there was space to build the Majolica. This small room with six windows, three of which are leaded, looks out over the Café. The walls are covered with so-called majolica tiles, faience tiles whose flower motifs form garlands all around the room. Decorating the stairs is a small statue of Olivier Piette, which recalls the style of the Wiener Werkstätte.
Originally, the Majolica served as a pastry shop and tearoom. During restoration in 1993, the tiles were removed and as many as possible were replaced. Many of the tiles got damaged when they were removed and as a consequence only three of the four walls could be retiled. Today the room is used for many purposes: from a staff canteen, to a conference room, to a reception room for about a hundred people.
