The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken (french: Serres Royales de Laeken, nl, Koninklijke Serres van Laken) are a vast complex of monumental heated
greenhouse
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
s in the park of the
Royal Palace of Laeken
The Palace of Laeken or Castle of Laeken (french: Château de Laeken, nl, Kasteel van Laken, german: Schloss zu Laeken) is the official residence of the King of the Belgians and the Belgian Royal Family. It lies in the Brussels-Capital Regio ...
(northern part of the
City of Brussels
The City of Brussels (french: Ville de Bruxelles or alternatively ''Bruxelles-Ville'' ; nl, Stad Brussel or ''Brussel-Stad'') is the largest municipality and historical City centre, centre of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, as well a ...
), Belgium. The historic complex contains
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
,
subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
and cold greenhouses.
[De tuinman & de koning: Het domein van Laken & zijn bewoners Boek van Erlend Hamerlijnck en Paul Van Gorp]
The greenhouses were designed and built by
Alphonse Balat
Alphonse Hubert François Balat (15 May 1818 – 16 September 1895) was a Belgian architect.
Life
Balat was born in Gochenée. He studied at the Academie of Namur and obtained his degree in architecture from the Academy of Antwerp in 1838.
...
on behalf of
King Leopold II
* german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor
, house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
, father = Leopold I of Belgium
, mother = Louise of Orléans
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Brussels, Belgium
, death_date = ...
.
They are now part of the Royal Domain and the royal private gardens belonging to the
Belgian Royal Family
Belgium is a constitutional, hereditary, and popular monarchy. The monarch is titled king or queen of the Belgians ( nl, Koning(in) der Belgen, french: Roi / Reine des Belges}, german: König(in) der Belgier) and serves as the country's ...
, and are accessible to the public only a few days a year. This site is served by
Stuyvenbergh metro station
Stuyvenbergh is a Brussels Metro
The Brussels Metro (french: Métro de Bruxelles, nl, Brusselse metro) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It consists of four conventional metro lines ...
on
line 6 of the
Brussels Metro
The Brussels Metro (french: Métro de Bruxelles, nl, Brusselse metro) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It consists of four conventional metro lines and three ''premetro'' lines. The me ...
.
History
Inception and construction
The original gardens of the
Royal Palace of Laeken
The Palace of Laeken or Castle of Laeken (french: Château de Laeken, nl, Kasteel van Laken, german: Schloss zu Laeken) is the official residence of the King of the Belgians and the Belgian Royal Family. It lies in the Brussels-Capital Regio ...
date back to the 18th century, but
King Leopold II
* german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor
, house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
, father = Leopold I of Belgium
, mother = Louise of Orléans
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Brussels, Belgium
, death_date = ...
drastically changed their appearance. The king, having visited the
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
at the
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
of 1851 in London, wanted such a progressive building in his palace's garden, which would combine his love for plants with multifunctional spaces that could also be used as a banquet, theatre and dining halls. He called on the
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
Jean Linden for this project, but his design was too unambitious. He then commissioned his architect
Alphonse Balat
Alphonse Hubert François Balat (15 May 1818 – 16 September 1895) was a Belgian architect.
Life
Balat was born in Gochenée. He studied at the Academie of Namur and obtained his degree in architecture from the Academy of Antwerp in 1838.
...
. Balat's plans surpassed all that had been achieved at the time, even the
Palm house in London's
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...
(1844–1848) and
Carl Bouché's botanical garden in
Berlin-Schöneberg. The realisation came about in close consultation between Balat and the king, following frequent discussions, correspondence and preliminary designs.
![Jardin d'hiver des serres du château royal de Laeken](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Jardin_d%27hiver_des_serres_du_ch%C3%A2teau_royal_de_Laeken.jpg)
The first construction phase took place between 1874 and 1893, ending with the completion of the so-called ''Iron Church'', a domed
greenhouse
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
, which would originally serve as the
royal chapel
A royal chapel is a chapel associated with a monarch, a royal court, or in a royal palace.
A royal chapel may also be a Chapel (music), body of clergy or musicians serving at a royal court or employed by a monarch.
Commonwealth countries
Both ...
. The inauguration took place in 1880, but the complex was also expanded afterwards. During that period, the king was preparing his
Congo Free State
''(Work and Progress)
, national_anthem = Vers l'avenir
, capital = Vivi Boma
, currency = Congo Free State franc
, religion = Catholicism (''de facto'')
, leader1 = Leopo ...
, a private colony which was founded in 1885. The greenhouses were intended as a symbol of the king's colonial power: plants from
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...
were said to illustrate that power. In particular, the Congo Greenhouse and the Embarcadère Greenhouse were built in 1886–1888 from this perspective. A third zone was constructed from 1892 to 1905. For this, after Balat's death, Leopold called upon the architects
Henri Maquet
Henri Maquet (30 August 1839 – 27 November 1909) was a Belgian architect, best known for his work for King Leopold II of Belgium.
Born in Brussels, Maquet trained in Liege, at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, then worked i ...
and
Charles Girault
Charles-Louis Girault (27 December 1851 – 26 December 1932) was a French architect.
Biography
Born in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, he studied with Honoré Daumet at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He received the first Pri ...
. The octagonal Palm Pavilion was furnished as a bedroom and connected to the palace by a subterranean corridor where Leopold received his mistresses. After the death of the king, in 1909, the greenhouses were preserved, but the ''Iron Church'' was converted into a private royal bathing house.
Present-day
The Winter Garden at the palace in Laeken still serves as the setting for royal receptions. Every year in the spring, the greenhouses are partially opened to the public for twenty days at the request of Leopold II. This tradition has been carried on by all
monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
s who reigned after him.
The greenhouses are also sometimes used today for
contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...
exhibits and displays, such as
Alexandre Dang
Alexandre Dang (born 19 May 1973 in Strasbourg, France) is a French visual artist. He lives and works currently in Brussels, Belgium.
Biography
Alexandre Dang comes originally from a scientific background (Engineer at the Ecole Polytechnique (Pa ...
's ''The Dancing Solar Forget-Me-Not'' for the International Day of Missing Children (in cooperation with
Child Focus {{More citations needed, date=December 2019
Child Focus (or the European Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children) is a Belgian foundation that supports prevention and investigation of missing children, abducted children, runaway children ...
) in 2010.
Description
The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken are among the major monuments of the 19th century in Belgium. They were built entirely in metal and glass, which represented a spectacular innovation for the time (as was the Crystal Palace in London). This complex takes on the appearance of a glass city set in a hilly landscape. It is characterised by monumental pavilions, glass domes, as well as wide galleries that run through the land like covered streets.
The total floor surface of this immense complex is . Approximately of fuel oil are needed each year to heat the buildings.
Winter Garden
The largest greenhouse, the round-domed Winter Garden (1874) with a diameter of and a height of , is made up of a number of concentric
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
es, which are additionally supported halfway through their span by a circular
Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
colonnade. The start and end points of the trusses rest on the ground so that the greenhouse presents the image of a glass dome supported by
flying buttress
The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...
es. Its enormous dimensions made it possible to plant Congolese palm trees in the rotunda. This Winter Garden, the main building of the complex, was also of great importance for the development of
cast-iron architecture
Cast-iron architecture is the use of cast iron in buildings and objects, ranging from bridges and markets to warehouses, balconies and fences. Refinements developed during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century made cast iron relative ...
.
Other greenhouses
Between 1885 and 1887, Balat designed the Palm Greenhouse, the Congo Greenhouse, the Diana Greenhouse, and the Embarcadère Greenhouse. The latter consists of two parallel compartments under a
barrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
, the second of which contains a dome supported by iron
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to:
*Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible:
**First Epistle to the Corinthians
**Second Epistle to the Corinthians
**Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox)
*A demonym relating to ...
columns. It is decorated with Chinese vases and two statues by the sculptor
Charles Van der Stappen
Charles van der Stappen (also Karl van der Stappen; 19 September 1843 – 21 October 1910), was a Belgian sculptor, born in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.
Life
Educated at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1859–1868), van der Stappen' ...
(''The Dawn'' and ''The Evening''). Finally, in 1893, the ''Iron Church'' was added, a
neo-Byzantine
Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orthod ...
ensemble surrounded by wreath chapels, the dome of which is supported by twenty columns of Scottish
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
. This greenhouse is therefore also officially called the Chapel Greenhouse.
Royal Botanic Collection
Famous is the Royal Botanic Collection, with old plants from Africa and various species of flowers which are cultivated inside the royal greenhouses for use at
court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
. Though the current collection has lost many
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
s since the death of Leopold II, the collection is still famous.
In 1909, there were 314 species of
camellia
''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controversy ...
s in the royal collection, with more than 1000 plants. Today, only 305 remain. The camellias are the world's largest and oldest collection in a greenhouse. The
orange tree
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
collection of Leopold II was renowned with 130 trees aged 200 to 300 years, and one even 400 years old. In the 1970s, only 45 trees were still alive.
Visit
The royal complex can only be visited each year during a two-week period in April–May, when most flowers are in full bloom. It is the opportunity to discover one of the most remarkable monuments of Belgian heritage and to admire the collections of exotic plants and flowers, some of which have been brought back from expeditions to the Congo for Leopold II.
Other times, the greenhouses are visited by heads of state during official visits. Famous visitors have included:
*
Archduke Rudolf
en, Rudolph Francis Charles Joseph
, caption = Rudolf in 1887
, spouse =
, issue = Elisabeth Marie, Princess Otto of Windisch-Graetz
, house = Habsburg-Lorraine
, father = Franz Joseph I of Austria
, mother ...
was engaged in the new Winter Garden (1880).
*
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...
, First Lady of the United States (2001)
*
Melania Trump
Melania Trump ( ; born Melanija Knavs , Germanized as Melania Knauss ; born April 26, 1970) is a Slovene-American former model and businesswoman who served as First Lady of the United States from 2017 to 2021 as the wife of 45th president Do ...
, First Lady of the United States (2017)
Gallery
Exterior
File:Royal Greenhouse of Laken.jpg,
File:Royal Greenhouse of Laken 2.jpg,
File:Laeken Se1nJPG.jpg,
File:Laeken Se1cJPG.jpg,
File:Greenhouse view - Royal Castle of Laeken - Brussels, Belgium - DSC07178.jpg,
Interior
File:Laeken Se1a.jpg,
File:Laeken Se1fJPG.jpg,
File:Laeken Se1lJPG.jpg,
File:Laeken Se1mJPG.jpg,
File:Laeken Se1jJPG.jpg,
File:Laeken Se1kJPG.jpg,
See also
*
List of parks and gardens in Brussels
This is a list of parks and gardens in the Brussels-Capital Region divided by List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality.
A park or garden located on the territory of several municipalities is listed for each municipalit ...
*
Royal Trust
References
Notes
Further reading
* Karin Borghouts, Irene Smets, Baudouin d'Hoore, ''Les Serres royales de Laeken'' (in French), BAI, 2019, 160 p.
* Edgard Goedleven, ''Les Serres royales de Laeken'' (in French), Brussels, Duculot, Inbel, 1988
* Edgard Goedleven, ''Les Serres royales de Laeken'' (in French), Brussels, Racine & SFI, 1997
* Piet Lombaerde et Ronny Gobyn, ''Léopold II Roi-Bâtisseur'' (in French), Ghent, Pandora, 1995
* Liane Ranieri, ''Léopold II urbaniste'' (in French), Brussels, Hayez, 1973
* Irène Smets, ''Les Serres royales de Laeken'' (in French), Ghent, Ludion, 2001
* Emiel Vandewoude, Jos. Vandenbreeden, Paul Van Gorp, ''Les Serres royales à Laeken'' (in French), Brussels, Donation Royale, 1981
* Emiel Vandewoude, ''De bouw van de Wintertuin te Laken, 1874-1876, een initiatief van Leopold II'' (in Dutch), Brussels, Album Carlos Wyffels, 1987
External links
Official websiteThe Royal Greenhouses of Laeken on BALaT - Belgian Art Links and Tools (KIK-IRPA, Brussels)
{{Authority control
Infrastructure completed in 1895
Buildings and structures in Brussels
Palaces in Belgium
Royal residences in Belgium
Tourist attractions in Brussels
Greenhouses
Gardens in Belgium
Leopold II of Belgium