{"id":7047,"date":"2026-06-17T16:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=7047"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:45:27","slug":"brussels-scraps-controversial-nativity-scene-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/brussels-scraps-controversial-nativity-scene-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels Scraps Controversial Nativity Scene for Good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Artist <strong>Victoria-Maria Geyer<\/strong> has withdrawn her installation after enduring a sustained backlash that included death threats, harassment, and the physical beheading of the Baby Jesus figure, according to <em>Brussels Signal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Geyer&#8217;s work, titled Les \u00c9toffes de la Nativit\u00e9, had replaced a beloved wooden nativity scene that had stood in the historic square for more than 25 years. The new installation featured life-sized figures draped in colorful fabrics but deliberately left without faces\u2014a design choice the German-born artist claimed would enable universal identification across religious and cultural lines.<\/p>\n<p>The \u20ac58,000 project was originally commissioned for a five-year run and received approval from both Brussels city authorities and local Catholic leadership.<\/p>\n<h2>Public Rejection and Vandalism<\/h2>\n<p>Reaction from the Belgian public was immediate and overwhelmingly negative. <strong>Georges-Louis Bouchez<\/strong>, leader of the Mouvement R\u00e9formateur party, condemned the faceless figures as resembling zombies and accused officials of sacrificing Western Christian heritage on the altar of multiculturalism.<\/p>\n<p>Polling data revealed massive public disapproval of the installation. A petition demanding restoration of a traditional nativity scene attracted tens of thousands of signatures within days.<\/p>\n<p>The situation deteriorated further when vandals decapitated the Baby Jesus figure shortly after the unveiling, forcing city officials to install round-the-clock video surveillance.<\/p>\n<h2>Artist Retreats Under Pressure<\/h2>\n<p>Geyer told Belgian daily La Libre Belgique that she felt engulfed by a firestorm from the moment the installation was revealed. Among the harassment she endured was someone mailing her a niqab\u2014a pointed commentary on the perceived Islamization of European public spaces.<\/p>\n<p>The artist has now decided to relocate her work to the Church of Our Lady of Good Aid near Fontainasplein, removing it entirely from public view.<\/p>\n<p>Brussels Mayor <strong>Philippe Close<\/strong> of the Socialist Party has confirmed the city administration is actively searching for a replacement nativity scene ahead of the 2026 Christmas market.<\/p>\n<p>Many saw it as another example of the erasure of Europe&#8217;s traditional symbols to accommodate multiculturalism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/brusselssignal.eu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brussels Signal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artist Victoria-Maria Geyer withdrew her controversial faceless nativity installation from Brussels&#8217; Grand Place after enduring death threats, harassment, and vandalism including the beheading of the Baby Jesus figure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":7046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[2198,725,7127,7128,7129,3998,7126],"nfg_topic":[136],"class_list":["post-7047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-grand-place","tag-nativity-scene","tag-religious-controversy","tag-vandalism","tag-victoria-maria-geyer","nfg_topic-christianity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7138,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions\/7138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=7047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}