Royal Puppet Theater Toone

The Royal Puppet Theater Toone hides behind a narrow, dark alleyway off the Grand Place. A small, faded sign above a heavy wooden door marks the entrance to this seventeenth century attic space. Inside, hundreds of wooden marionettes hang from the rafters, their faces carved with exaggerated, frozen expressions. This theater survived by moving between various basements and attics across Brussels for generations. When the city planned to demolish the neighborhood in the nineteen sixties, puppeteer Jose Geal bought the building to save it.