The Heysel () or Heizel (), sometimes the Heysel Plateau (; ) or Heysel Park (; ), is a neighbourhood, park and exhibition space 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 ...

, in the north-west 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 ...

, Belgium, where the Brussels International Exposition of 1935 and the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (

Expo 58 Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (; ), was a world's fair held on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Belgium, from 17 April to 19 October 1958. It was the first major world's fair registered under the Bureau Internati ...

) took place. The

Atomium The Atomium ( , , ) is a landmark modernist building in Brussels, Belgium, originally constructed as the centrepiece of the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn and the architects André and Jean Pol ...

, a

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

structure, originally built for Expo 58, is the most impressive monument on the Heysel Plateau and is now considered a

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern-day use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures ...

of Brussels. Opposite it, the Centenary Palace is one of the lasting remaining buildings of the 1935 World's Fair. It was also the venue for the 32nd Eurovision Song Contest in 1987. It is now home to the Brussels Exhibition Centre ( Brussels Expo), the city's most important event complex in Belgium and the largest exhibition space in the

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

. The Heysel Plateau was also the location of the Heysel Stadium, Belgium's former

national stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

, originally built in 1930. After the

Heysel Stadium disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( ; ; ) was a crowd disaster on 29 May 1985, when Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by Liverpool fans while they were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of ...

of 1985 at the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

final, it was demolished and in its place the

King Baudouin Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium ( ; ) is a sports ground in Brussels, Belgium. Located in the north-western district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in view of the 1935 Brussels International Exposition ...

was built. The Bruparck entertainment park (with among others

Mini-Europe Mini-Europe is a miniature park located in the Bruparck entertainment park, at the foot of the Atomium, in Brussels, Belgium. Mini-Europe has reproductions of monuments in the European Union and other countries within the continent of Europe on ...

miniature park A miniature park is a display of miniature buildings and models, usually as a recreational and tourist attraction open to the public. A miniature park may contain a model of a single city or town, often called a miniature city or model village, o ...

and Kinepolis cinema) and the

Planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

of the

Royal Observatory of Belgium The Royal Observatory of Belgium (; ; ) has been situated in the Uccle municipality of Brussels since 1890. It is part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO). The Royal Observatory was first established in S ...

are also located there, as is the Palais 12/Paleis 12, a large and modern multiuse indoor arena with a maximum capacity of 15,000 people. This site is served by Heysel/Heizel 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 ...

Toponymy

The name ''Heysel'' derives from the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

word ', meaning "meager pasture" or "hill". There is also evidence of a brook in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, the Heyselbeek, a tributary of the Molenbeek brook, formed from several sources on the heights of Osseghem. ''Heyssel'' is retained as a toponym on the Huvenne map of 1848 and in the ''Geographical Dictionary of Letter Posts of the Kingdom of Belgium'' of 1857. The terms ''Heysel'' in French and ''Heizel'' in Dutch have in fact gradually imposed themselves to fairly broadly designate this district of Laeken, to the detriment of two other toponyms, which designate more precise parts of it: ''Hossegem Dries'' to the north-west, at the current location of Osseghem Park, and ''Kauwenberg'' to the south-east, around the Chapel of St. Anna.

History

Rural beginnings

The Osseghem estate on the Heysel Plateau was first mentioned in the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

and may have been on the site of a former

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

. In 1152, a sale of the ''Hof van Ossegem'' by the heirs of Meinard van Brussel to

Affligem Abbey Affligem Abbey (, ) is a Benedictine order, Benedictine abbey in the historic village of Hekelgem, now in the municipality of Affligem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium, to the north-west of Brussels. Dedicated in 1086, it was the most important monas ...

is documented, which also included the old Church of Our Lady of Laeken. This church, whose origins date back to the 8th century, was located nearby, as was the Chapel of St. Anna with its miraculous spring, which attracted many

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

s. During the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for " ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...

, the Heysel Plateau was still largely owned by the Affligem fathers, and the area belonged to the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

. At the height of the plateau were two other hamlets: Verregat and Osseghem. The latter was found just south of today's

and gave its name to today's Osseghem Park, while Vleurgat was further north, near the /, where the Vleurgat residential area is today. In the 16th century, the Coensborgh Castle occupied an island on a pond formed by the Molenbeek. It was the property of the Meeûs family in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the beauty of the landscape motivated the construction of the Stuyvenberg Castle in 1725, the Palace of Schonenberg (today's Royal Palace of Laeken) between 1782 and 1784, and the Belvédère Castle in 1788. The

Ferraris map The Ferraris map or map of the Austrian Netherlands is a historical map created between 1770 and 1778 by Count Joseph de Ferraris and includes 275 sheets published at the original scale of 1/11.5. The map was made in response to a request by ...

of 1777 does not show these first two castles but indicates the Osseghem farm, located a little south of the current King Baudouin Stadium. The Osseghem farm grew into a small village, which, in the 18th century, also included a ''Speelhuys'', a pavilion where the

Archbishop of Mechelen In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

stayed when visiting Brussels. Numerous

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...

were also operated on the Heysel Plateau, which supplied the building material for, among other things, the Abbey Church of Affligem, the Church of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel, the Jesuit Church in Antwerp and the Church of Our Lady of Finisterrae in central Brussels. Quarrying ceased towards the end of the 17th century, though traces can still be seen on the slopes to the east, in the Kattenberg and the depressions in Osseghem Park.

19th-century urbanisation

At the end of the 19th century, the Heysel still had a distinctly rural character, although there were already plans to develop it into a new urban area. In 1850, the

Belgian Government The Federal Government of Belgium ( ; ; ) exercises executive power in the Kingdom of Belgium. It consists of ministers and secretaries of state ("junior", or deputy-ministers who do not sit in the Council of Ministers) drawn from the polit ...

authorised the construction of a new

Church of Our Lady of Laeken The Church of Our Lady of Laeken (; ) is a Catholic parish church in the Brussels district of Laeken, Belgium. Built in neo-Gothic style, it was originally erected in memoriam of Queen Louise-Marie, wife of King Leopold I, to the design of th ...

, intended to replace the medieval building (destroyed except for its

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

, which is still visible in the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

adjacent to the current church). King Leopold I himself laid the first stone in 1854, although the new church, much larger than the old one, was not completed until 1909. In 1869, a school was inaugurated in the hamlet, probably on the /. The Rue du Heysel itself was attested in an official document in 1875, and stretched between the / and the / (today's /). The Villa Van der Borght was built in 1885 at the bottom of what is now the /, which was not yet laid out (the building will be razed in 1956), followed by the Church of St. Lambert around 1890. Upon ascending to the throne, in 1865, King Leopold II was concerned with the construction of a memorial to his father in the perspective of the Royal Palace of Laeken. The development of a surrounding public park was approved in 1867. Laeken Park was gradually developed between 1876 and 1880 based on plans by the German

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

Édouard Keilig, associated with the civil engineer Louis Van Schoubroeck. The park and the monument were completed in 1880, in time for the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence. The king acquired more land on the Heysel in 1899. Plans to enlarge the Royal Palace lead to the demolition of the

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

located on its right flank, where a detachment of

grenadier A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word ''grenade'') was historically an assault-specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in siege operation battles. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when ...

s, responsible since 1840 for the surveillance of the royal palaces, had been stationed. A new barracks was constructed between 1899 and 1902, in a Flemish

neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

style, according to the plans of the architect Jules-Jacques Van Ysendyck. The buildings are now made available by Belgium for the European School, Brussels IV. In 1905, the 75th anniversary of the country's independence was celebrated with great fanfare, among others in Laeken Park. Later, the Institute of Agricultural Home Economics, a girls' school for agriculture and domestic science, was also set up in Osseghem.

Later development (1920s–present)

After the municipality of Laeken was annexed by the

in 1921, the Belgian State transferred some of Leopold II's former land to the city. Since the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark had become too cramped, Brussels' authorities wished to develop the Heysel into a new exhibition and conference location of international stature for the Belgian capital. The Centenary Palace complex (, ) was designed by the architect Joseph Van Neck to house the 1935 World's Fair. The Jubilee Stadium on the Heysel was completed in 1930 as part of the centenary celebrations of the

Belgian Revolution The Belgian Revolution (, ) was a conflict which led to the secession of the southern provinces (mainly the former Southern Netherlands) from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Belgium. The ...

. It was renamed the Heysel Stadium after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and then the King Baudouin Stadium in 1995. EXPO Bruxelles 1935-B

In the 1950s, the Heysel underwent another major change in preparation for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (

). On that occasion, 58 additional buildings were constructed, as well as the

, a

structure by the architect André Waterkeyn. It consists of nine steel spheres connected by tubes, and forms a model of an

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

(specifically, a

unit cell In geometry, biology, mineralogy and solid state physics, a unit cell is a repeating unit formed by the vectors spanning the points of a lattice. Despite its suggestive name, the unit cell (unlike a unit vector In mathematics, a unit vector i ...

), magnified 165 billion times. Originally devoted to science, it would become a

of Brussels. Following the fair, most of the exhibition pavilions were gradually demolished, including a few, particularly emblematic, such as the

Philips Pavilion The Philips Pavilion (; ) was a modernist pavilion in Brussels, Belgium, constructed for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). Commissioned by electronics manufacturer Philips and designed by the office of Le Corbusier, it was built to hous ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

and the ''Flèche du Génie civil'' sculpture, dynamited in 1970. The Atomium remains the main vestige of this period. The Brussels Exhibition Centre ( Brussels Expo) gradually expanded between 1977 and 1998 with the construction of the Palais/Paleis 11, the Palais/Paleis 12, and the Auditorium. It now has twelve halls, linked together by covered galleries, and currently occupies of land, making it the most important event complex in the city and the largest exhibition space in the

. The year 1985 was marked by the

, a crowd disaster, which caused 39 deaths during the final of the

. Since then, the stadium has been redeveloped and renamed the King Baudouin Stadium. That same year, the Heysel/Heizel metro station opened. In 1987, the 32nd Eurovision Song Contest was organised in the Centenary Palace.

Future

Potential European Quarter

The ''Heysel Project'' was a potential

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU) "quarter" development in the Heysel. As part of that project, the area surrounding the

would have become, on the long term, a location for some of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

's buildings, according to a draft project developed by the

. The City of Brussels had previously decided to allocate this area to "infrastructures dedicated to the international vocation of Brussels" and planned to erect a convention centre of "international dimensions" with a capacity of 3,500 seats and an "important commercial centre." In January 2009, the Commission's then-spokeswoman Valerie Rampi confirmed that the EU executive was considering several proposals for a new location, with some of office space. On 15 September 2008, a draft entitled "Application file for the Heysel plain to host a new European quarter" was issued. According to the draft project, the Heysel was to host a new branch of the

European School A European School () is a type of international school emphasising a multilingual and multicultural pedagogical approach to the teaching of nursery, primary and secondary students, leading to the European Baccalaureate as their secondary lea ...

, where EU officials educate their children in their native tongues. This was made true in 2012 with the European School, Brussels IV's move from

Forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

to its purpose built campus on the plateau. The area lies on a direct subway line connecting it to Brussels' current European Quarter. The existing parking facilities, the biggest in Belgium, were also presented as a plus, as well as the planned new residential area and the proximity of parks and leisure facilities. The European Quarter would have remained the centre of the Commission's activities, but the body was also looking for "additional poles outside" this central area, in order to exert a downward pressure on real estate prices, according to

Siim Kallas Siim Kallas (; born 2 October 1948) is an Estonian former politician, having served as Prime Minister of Estonia and European Commissioner. From 1972-90 Kallas was a member of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). In 1987, Kallas was ...

, the EU's then- Commissioner for Administrative Affairs.

''Neo'' Project

In 2009, a new project called ''Neo'' was launched to renovate the Heysel. This new plan provides for the construction of 590 housing units, a new shopping centre called ''Mall of Europe'' and a new amusement park, as well as a new sports park. The total cost is estimated at €1 billion. The town planning permit was issued and the project is scheduled for completion by 2030. On 16 October 2020, the then-

mayor of the City of Brussels This is a list of mayors or burgomasters of the City of Brussels. Burgundian Netherlands (1384–1482) *1380: Pipenpoy family, Geert Pipenpoy *1381: Pipenpoy family, Geert Pipenpoy and Jacques Stovaert *1421: J. Swaeff, J. Cooman *1422: Walter ...

, Philippe Close, announced the definitive abandonment of part of the project, in particular the Congress Centre, but part of it, such as the mall, will remain.

Gallery

File:Atomium Belgium 1.jpg, The

File:Palais des Expositions.jpg, Centenary Palace File:Stade Roi Baudouin.JPG,

File:P12 Exterior.png, Palais 12/Paleis 12 File:Laeken Blick vom Atomium aufs Messegelände 2.jpg, Trademart File:Planetarium Royal Observatory Belgium.jpg,

File:Imax brussels.png, Kinepolis Brussels File:View of site from Atomium.JPG,

File:ADAM Brussels Design Museum.jpg, Design Museum Brussels

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * Paduart, André; Van Doosselaere, Jean, ''La Flèche du Génie Civil, au Heysel, Annales des Travaux Publics de Belgique'' (in French), no. 1-1958; Design and Construction of the Civil Engineering Arrow at the Brussels International Exhibition, Journal of the American Concrete Institute, Proc. vol. 57, July 1960, p. 51–72. * * * Van Nieuwenhuysen, Andrée; Laurent, René ''Inventaire des archives de la famille Van Reynegom de Buzet'' (in French), no. 1246–1253

External links

*
Atomium, Heysel Exhibition Park project information

{{Neighbourhoods in Brussels Parks in Brussels Neighbourhoods of Brussels City of Brussels World's fair sites in Belgium