Atomium
Halfway between sculpture and architecture, the Atomium was designed and built for the Brussels World's Fair (1958), for which it was the flagship building and emblem. Representing an iron unit cell (9 iron atoms) magnified 165 billion times, the monument with its unique silhouette has, over time, grown to become the symbol of Brussels and Belgium.
On the inside the Atomium offers, not just the most beautiful view of Brussels, but also an entirely astounding and surreal ride through its interior spaces and volumes which alone makes a visit worth it.
The Atomium ticket automatically includes the entrance to the Design Museum Brussels (150m away).
Atomium
Design Museum Brussels
The Design Museum Brussels, established after the acquisition of a private collection by the Atomium, is a place dedicated to design and its history. Since 2015, the museum's collection, the Plastic Design Collection, circumscribes the landscape of plastics in design from the 1950s to the present day. Alongside this collection, the museum opened Belgisch Design Belge, a new permanent exhibition space dedicated to Belgian design and its history.
Enriched by a programme of temporary exhibitions, the Design Museum Brussels also explores other fields of design creation and its impact on society and our daily lives.
Through exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, conferences and events, the museum aims to ensure that design is intelligible to one and all.
Design Museum Brussels
Planetarium of Brussels
Come and discover the marvels of a starry sky projected on a 23 m diametre, 360° screen. At the Planetarium you can be as close as possible to the launching of a rocket, see Earth from Space, visit the International Space Station, fly over the surface of Mars, approach the rings of Saturn ! And why stop there? Do you dare pass the limits of the Milky Way ? Will you let yourself be taken on an exploration of the extreme boundaries of the Universe?
Planetarium of Brussels
ING Arena
ING Arena (former Hall 12 of Brussels Expo) was converted into a multipurpose hall to welcome at Heysel major events such as major concerts, conventions, shows and sporting events for a capacity between 2,500 and 15,000 people.
ING Arena
Mini-Europe
The whole of Europe animated in miniature!
Be amazed! Mini-Europe is a park featuring all the wonders of Europe, in miniature. Bonsai trees, flowery groves and dwarf trees embellish the 350 monuments which have been reproduced at scale 1/25. Thousands of lifelike figurines and animations! Set off the eruption of the Vesuvius and admire the takeoff of the Ariane rocket. The two hour walk, which is both entertaining and educational, will let you (re)discover the 27 member states of the European Union and the United Kingdom, their historical, architectural and cultural wealth
This establishment has been awarded the Brussels Health Safety Label
Mini-Europe
Laeken cemetery
Ornamented with monuments each more prestigious than the next, it is gradually becoming the "Belgian Père-Lachaise", drawing inspiration from the Parisian example of 1804. The final resting place of the nobility and the middle classes, over the 19th and 20th centuries, it amassed the burial places of the most eminent figures of the political, financial, artistic (the singer La Malibran, the architects J. Poelaert and A. Balat), social and intellectual worlds. A real summary of artistic trends from neoclassicism to expressionism, via Romanticism and every new wave, this open-air funeral museum preserves the works of some of the greatest architects and artists. (Renovation works).
Laeken cemetery
Royal Greenhouses of Laeken
During the 19th century, progress in construction techniques, especially the use of metal and glass as construction materials, made a new type of building possible: the greenhouse.
In 1873, architect Alphonse Balat designed for King Leopold II a complex of greenhouses which complement the castle of Laeken, built in the classical style. The complex has the appearance of a glass city set in an undulating landscape with monumental pavilions, glass cupolas and wide arcades that cross the site like covered streets. The Royal Greenhouses in Laeken - the "Ideal Glass Palace" - inspired the new Belgian architecture of the day, and their influence spread, with Art Nouveau, throughout the world.
The present-day plant collection at the Greenhouses in Laeken is extremely valuable because some of the plants belonging to King Leopold II's original collections still exist and the current collections still respect the spirit that prevailed when the original collections were planted.
Finally, the Royal Greenhouses still contain an enormous number of rare and valuable plants.
As the tradition wants, each year in spring, the Greenhouses of Laeken are opened to the public for almost three weeks.
Royal Greenhouses of Laeken
