The first houses in the Grand' Place were all built of wood. They were destroyed in a bombardment by the French army in 1695 during the reign of Louis XIV. The French wars greatly reduced architectural activity in the late seventeenth century. All the buildings on the square were destroyed except the Gothic town hall, one guild house and part of the Gothic Maison du Roi or Broodhuis. The guild houses were rebuilt between 1695 and 1700. Their architectural style is a local interpretation of Italian Baroque. The classicism here seems to be merely overlaid on the traditional architectural design. There is a rich variety of shapes, forms and designs in the grouping of these houses. Although the guild houses are large, they lack the monumentality which comes from a greater simplicity and unity of design. The small scale of the ornamentation, and the richness with which it is applied, give the buildings the intricacy of lace. The individualism of each building prevents the ensemble from being read as a single design. This is not necessarily a flaw, and in fact is characteristic of architecture in Belgium, which almost always emphasizes the individual or small group over the mass.