ABATTOIR, BOULEVARD DE L'/SLACHTHUISLAAN
The last boulevard to be constructed comprising a part of the inner ring road, the boulevard de l'Abattoir links the porte d'Anderlecht to the porte de Ninove. Completed in 1840, it remained the sole boulevard not joined by a parallel avenue until 1918, when its twin, the boulevard Poincaré, was laid out. It remains one of the few thoroughfares in Brussels not to have changed names. A great slaughterhouse (abattoir) was built adjacent to the boulevard and inaugurated by King Leopold I in 1841. It replaced the Grande Bucherie at the Marché aux Herbes. In 1890, the slaughterhouse was shut down, replaced by updated facilities in Anderlecht. All vestiges were erased in 1926 and the Institut des Arts et Métiers was founded on the site in 1932.