Royal Palace of Brussels

The Royal Palace of Brussels (French: Palais royal de Bruxelles [palɛ ʁwajal də bʁysɛl]; Dutch: Koninklijk Paleis van Brussel [ˈkoːnɪŋklək paːˈlɛis fɑm ˈbrʏsəl]; German: Königlicher Palast von Brüssel [ˈkøːnɪklɪçɐ paˈlast fɔn ˈbʁʏsl̩]) is the official palace of the 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 live in the Royal Palace of Laeken in northern Brussels. The website of the Belgian Monarchy describes the function of the Royal Palace as follows: The Royal Palace is where His Majesty the King exercises his prerogatives as Head of State, grants audiences and deals with affairs of state.

Apart from the offices of the King and the Queen, the Royal Palace houses the services of the Grand Marshal of the Court, the King's Head of Cabinet, the Head of the King's Military Household and the Intendant of the King's Civil List. The Royal Palace also includes the State Rooms where large receptions are held, as well as the apartments provided for foreign Heads of State during official visits.

The first nucleus of the present-day building dates from the end of the 18th century. However, the grounds on which the Royal Palace stands were once part of the Palace of Coudenberg, a very old palatial complex that dated back to the Middle Ages. The existing façade was only built after 1900 on the initiative of King Leopold II.

The Royal Palace is situated in front of Brussels Park, from which it is separated by a long square called the Place des Palais/Paleizenplein. This area is served by Brussels-Central railway station, as well as by the metro stations Parc/Park (on lines 1 and 5) and Trône/Troon (on lines 2 and 6).

Text adapted from “Royal Palace of Brussels” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Royal Palace of Brussels ranks #220 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #1 of the 89 mapped in Belgium. Founded 1826, it is older than 11% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 562 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 20,626 times in the last 60 days, more than 97% of the atlas. 12 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Brussels, 1 km away. See how Belgium compares in the castle statistics.

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