Leopold Park

Geschiedenis

Parc Léopold or Leopoldspark is a public park located within the Leopold Quarter of Brussels, adjacent to the Paul-Henri Spaak building, the seat of the European Parliament.The park was opened to the public in 1880 after the unpopular Royal Zoological Garden had been removed. During the following years, a campus for the famous Solvay School of Commerce was established in the park but construction of additional buildings was soon curtailed for fear of encroachment on the park and its fragile wildlife. The buildings have remained to this day but only one still belongs to Solvay . The building of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is also located in the park.The Solvay Library is also located in the park and houses the Security & Defence Agenda, Friends of Europe and Maison d'Europe think tanks. In 2017, the House of European History, a history museum, opened in the refurbished Eastman Building.The outstanding feature of the park is its pond, fed by the Maalbeek stream. Many rare trees and animals such as mallards, moorhens, coots, and even Egyptian geese and rose-ringed parakeets thrive in this urban environment.