The Palace of Laeken or Castle of Laeken (; ; ) is the official residence of the King and Queen of the Belgians and the

Belgian royal family The monarchy of Belgium is the constitutional and hereditary institution of the monarchical head of state of the Kingdom of Belgium. As a popular monarchy, the Belgian monarch uses the title king/queen of the Belgians and serves as the ...

. It lies in the

Brussels-Capital Region Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital ...

, north of the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

, in

Laeken (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is a residential suburb in the north-western part of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. It belongs to the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality of the ...

(part of the

City of Brussels The City of Brussels is the largest List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality and historical City centre, centre of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the ...

), and sits in a large private park called the Royal Domain of Laeken. The palace was built between 1782 and 1784 for the Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands, and was originally named the Palace of Schonenberg. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1890, after which it was rebuilt and extended. Significant modifications were undertaken at the beginning of the 20th century during the reign of King Leopold II. Nowadays, it is often referred to as the Royal Palace of Laeken or Royal Castle of Laeken. The Palace of Laeken should not be confused with the

Royal Palace of Brussels The Royal Palace of Brussels ( ; ; ) is the official palace of the Monarchy of Belgium, King and Queen of the Belgians in the centre of the nation's capital, Brussels. However, it is not used as a royal residence, as the king and his family l ...

, in central Brussels, which is the official palace (not residence) of the King of the Belgians and from which state affairs are handled. It is served by Stuyvenbergh metro station on line 6 of the

Brussels Metro The Brussels 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 metro-grade lines are M1, M2, M5, and M6 wi ...

History

Origins (–1830)

The palace was built between 1782 and 1784 in

, then a rural village outside

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, after the plans of the French architect and urbanist Charles de Wailly, under supervision of the Belgian-Austrian architect Louis Montoyer. It was originally named the Palace of Schonenberg (, ) and was to serve as a summer residence for the Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands, Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen and her husband Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen. The French

cabinetmaker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (solid ...

Jean-Joseph Chapuis provided the royal furniture. On 21 July 1803, Nicolas-Jean Rouppe, the commissioner of the department of the Dyle, received

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

at the Palace of Laeken. Napoleon stayed there with the

Empress Joséphine The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rule ...

in August 1804 on his way from awarding the first ''

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

'' to his troops at Boulogne, to his progress along the Rhine, and later, during the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...

in 1815, prematurely drafted a proclamation to be made from the palace: File:Front Schonenberg.jpg, The Palace of Schonenberg in the 18th century File:Goetghebuer - 1827 - Choix des monuments - 001 Palais Royal de Laeken.jpg, Engraving of the Palace of Laeken, from Pierre-Jacques Goetghebuer's ''Choix des monuments'' (1827) File:Goetghebuer - 1827 - Choix des monuments - 002 Plan du Palais Royal de Laeken.jpg, Floor plan of the palace (Goetghebuer, 1827)

Post-independence (1830–present)

Following Belgian independence in 1830, Rouppe, by then mayor of the City of Brussels, received the new King Leopold I at the Palace of Laeken on 21 July 1831, the day of Leopold's coronation. The palace was partly destroyed by fire in 1890, and was rebuilt and extended by the architect Alphonse Balat. The French architect Charles Girault gave it its present outline in 1902, with the addition of two new monumental wings forming a "U" shape with the main façade. The domain also contains the large

Royal Greenhouses of Laeken The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken (, ) are a vast complex of monumental heated greenhouses in the park of the Palace of Laeken, Royal Palace of Laeken (northern part of the City of Brussels), Belgium. The historic complex contains Tropics, tropic ...

, a set of monumental dome-shaped constructions, accessible to the public only a few days a year. They were also originally designed by Balat, with the cooperation of the young

Victor Horta Victor Pierre Horta (; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. He was a fervent admirer of the French architectural theoris ...

. The Palace of Laeken has been the royal residence since Leopold I's accession to the throne in 1831. However, upon their accession to the throne in 1993, King Albert II and Queen Paola preferred to remain living in the Belvédère Château on the grounds of the park surrounding the palace. The current occupants of the palace are King Philippe, Queen Mathilde and their four children. File:Château royal de Laeken en 1880.jpg, The Palace of Laeken in 1880, etching from ''L'Illustration nationale'' File:Incendie du château royal de Laeken le 1 janvier 1890.jpg, The Palace of Laeken on fire, 1 January 1890 File:Laeken after the fire.jpg, Aftermath of the fire File:Château royal de Laeken J1.jpg, The wing built by King Leopold II

Royal Domain

The Royal Domain of Laeken is extensive, about , or slightly smaller than

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

. The gardens are surrounded by walls and iron gates, and are closed to the public, although there have been calls for the king to open at least a portion of the park for public use amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium The COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Belgium on 4 February 2020, when one of a group of nine Belgians repatriated from Wuhan to Brussels was repor ...

. The gardens of the Royal Domain are landscaped in English style; the vast park includes lakes, a golf course and artworks. King Leopold II was very closely connected with the designs of his private gardens. It is in these gardens that his only son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, fell in a pond, and died subsequently from pneumonia, aged only nine. The king had trees planted for his new-born children, which still stand in the park. There are various pavilions, including the Chinese Pavilion and the Japanese Tower. They were commissioned by Leopold II and now form part of the

Museums of the Far East The Museums of the Far East (; ) is a complex of three museums in Laeken, in the north-west of the City of Brussels, Belgium. Consisting of the Chinese Pavilion, the Japanese Tower and the Museum of Japanese Art, it is dedicated to Asian art, O ...

. The rooms of the Chinese Pavilion are designed in ''

chinoiserie (, ; loanword from French '' chinoiserie'', from '' chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other Sinosphere artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, lite ...

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

and

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

styles. They are decorated with Chinese motifs,

chinaware Chinese ceramics are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. They range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese ...

and silverware. The Japanese Tower is a

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

(known as a

Tō Multi-storied pagodas in wood and stone, and a ''gorintō'' Pagodas in Japan are called , sometimes or , and derive historically from the Chinese pagoda, itself an interpretation of the Indian ''stupa''. Like the ''stupa'', pagodas were ori ...

), inspired by a construction Leopold II saw at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Leopold II commissioned his architect Alexandre Marcel to build him a similar one in Laeken. In the gardens live several colonies of wild Canada geese, hundreds of

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) ado ...

s and other large birds. The gardens are also home to one of the biggest colonies of

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

s in the country. File:Castle of Laeken.JPG, Main façade of the Palace of Laeken File:0 Château Royal de Laeken - Jardins 2.JPG, The gardens of the

Royal Domain Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

and the Japanese Tower File:Lawn - Royal Castle of Laeken - Brussels, Belgium - DSC07103.jpg, Great Lawn of the Royal Domain

Royal Greenhouses

The

are located within the Royal Domain and are attached to the palace via the

orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

. They were commissioned by King Leopold II, originally designed by Alphonse Balat, and built between 1874 and 1905. Following Balat's death in 1895, Leopold called upon the architects Henri Maquet and Charles Girault. The total floor area of this immense complex is . The main

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

s, such as the Congo Greenhouse and the so-called ''Iron Church'', a domed greenhouse, which would originally serve as the royal chapel, are all linked by flowered corridors spanning hundreds of metres. The complex is home to the famous Royal Botanic Collection, which includes large collections of

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in East Asia, eastern and South Asia, southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are ...

s, orange trees and many plants originating from the African parts of the former Belgian Empire. Many sculptures and Chinese vases can also be found within the greenhouses. File:Laeken Se1JPG.jpg,

File:Royal Greenhouse of Laken.jpg,

Orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

File:Laeken Se1a.jpg, Under the dome of the Winter Garden File:Laeken Se1lJPG.jpg, Interior of the Embarcadère Greenhouse

Modern-day function

The Palace of Laeken is mainly a residential palace and has a more sober and intimate character than the

. Since 1999, it has been the residence of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde with their family. The

are open to the public for three weeks each year during the flowering period, in April–May. The palace is known for its stables, the

Chinese pavilion A Chinese pavilion ( Chinese 亭, pinyin ''tíng'') is a garden pavilion in traditional Chinese architecture. While often found within temples, pavilions are not exclusively religious structures. Many Chinese parks and gardens feature pavilions t ...

and the Japanese Tower. The painting studio of

Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of Belgium Elisabeth of Bavaria (Elisabeth Gabriele Valérie Marie; 25 July 187623 November 1965) was Queen of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 to 17 February 1934 as the wife of King Albert I of Belgium, Albert I, and a duchess in Bavaria by birth. Sh ...

, can also be admired. At the request of Queen Paola, the play pavilion in which the children of King Leopold III grew up has been restored, so that Crown

Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (born 25 October 2001), is the heir apparent to the Belgian throne. The child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, she was elevated to the dukedom after her grandfather Albert II abdicated on 21 July ...

could play there with her siblings and cousins.

Influence

Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga ( ; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997), often shortened to Mobutu Sese Seko or Mobutu and also known by his initials MSS, was a Congolese politician and military officer ...

, the dictator of

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

(the modern-day

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

), built a palace in his hometown of

Gbadolite Gbadolite or Gbado-Lite () is the capital of Nord-Ubangi Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The town is located south of the Ubangi River at the border to the Central African Republic and northeast of the national capital Kinshasa ...

modelled upon the Royal Palace of Laeken.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

*
The Royal Castle of Laeken
at Visit Brussels {{Authority control Castles in Brussels Palaces in Brussels City of Brussels Royal residences in Belgium Houses completed in 1784 Neoclassical palaces in Belgium Continental gardens in the English Landscape Garden style Leopold I of Belgium 1784 establishments in the Habsburg monarchy