The Royal Palace of Brussels ( ; ; ) 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 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.
History
Palace of Coudenberg
The first building on the Coudenberg hill was constructed between the second half of the 11th and first half of the 12th century. At that time, it probably looked like a fortified castle forming a part of the city's fortifications. It was the home of the Dukes of Brabant, who also resided in the nearby city of Leuven and in Tervuren Castle. In the following centuries, it was rebuilt, extended, and improved, in line with the increased prestige of the Dukes of Brabant and their successors: the Dukes of Burgundy, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, as well as successive Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands.
The , a gigantic room for royal receptions and other pageantry, was built for Philip the Good in the 15th century. The first regular meetings of the States General, composed of delegates from the middle class, clergy and nobility of the Burgundian Netherlands, were held there in 1465. It was in this room that, in 1515, Duchess Margaret of Austria formally relinquished her regency over the Habsburg Netherlands to Charles of Habsburg. It was also in this same room that, in 1555, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son, King Philip II of Spain.
This impressive complex suffered several fires over the centuries. In 1679, a fire destroyed part of the roof. A large fire that broke out on 3 February 1731 almost completely destroyed the building. Only the court chapel and the walls of the were somewhat spared. The ruins only disappeared when the district was redeveloped after 1775. At that time the urban axes of the present-day Brussels Park were laid out. The Place Royale/Koningsplein was built on top of the ruined palace. Excavations of the site by different archaeological organisations have unearthed various remains of different parts of the palace as well as the surrounding town. The monumental vaults remaining under the square and its surrounding buildings can be visited.
The new Royal Palace
Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, at that time Governor of the Austrian Netherlands, had a new palace, the Palace of Charles of Lorraine, built on the nearby site of the former Palace of Orange-Nassau. The Palace of Charles of Lorraine is now part of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) and the old palace's garden was redesigned as a public park. On the northern side, a new building for the Council of Brabant was built by the French architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard, which now houses the Belgian Federal Parliament and is known as the Palace of the Nation. On the other side of the park (the building plot of the present-day Royal Palace), the park's middle axis continued as a street between two newly built mansions. One served as the abbot's residence of the nearby Coudenberg Abbey, while the other was inhabited by important government members.
After the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15, Brussels became (together with The Hague) the joint capital of the new established United Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was under the rule of King William I of the Netherlands that the street was covered and the two mansions were joined with a gallery. The newly created "Royal Palace" received a new neoclassical façade designed by the architect Tilman-François Suys with a peristyle in the middle, and a balcony with a wrought iron parapet surrounding the entire first floor.
The street running alongside the new Royal Palace was widened and thus the Place des Palais/Paleizenplein ("Palaces' Square") was created. The new square's name uses the plural form because another palace was built on the left side of the Royal Palace. This new building (1823) was designed as the residence of the Crown Prince called the Prince of Orange (the future King William II of the Netherlands). Nowadays, it houses five Belgian academies, including the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) and is consequently called the Academy Palace. The rooms and salons of the old mansions were incorporated in the new Royal Palace and were only partly refurnished. Some of them survived the 19th and 20th centuries' renovations and are still partly intact. A major addition to the interior decoration from the time of William I is the so-called "Empire Room", which was designed as a ballroom. It has a very refined cream and gold decoration designed and executed by the famous French sculptor François Rude.
Extensions by Leopold II
After the Belgian Revolution in 1830–31, the Royal Palace was offered to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha when he ascended the throne as King Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians. Just like his predecessor, William II, he used the palace mainly for official receptions and other representational purposes and lived in the Royal Palace of Laeken. During his reign (until 1865), little was changed to the palace. It was his son and successor, King Leopold II, who judging the building to be too modest for a king of his stature, kept on enlarging and embellishing the palace until his death in 1909.
During Leopold II's reign, the palace nearly doubled in surface area. The houses located between the different buildings were destroyed and gave way to two symmetrical curved galleries, which considerably widened the length of the building. A large part of the shallow grounds located in front of the palace were also filled in, in order to increase the space in front of its façade. After the designs of the king's architect Alphonse Balat, imposing rooms like the Grand Staircase, the Throne Room and the Grand Gallery were added. Balat also planned a new façade but died before the plans could be executed.
The palace's current façade was only executed after 1904 according to new plans by the architect Henri Maquet. Suys' façade was demolished for this undertaking and the new façade was added to the gutted salons. The salons and the Empire Room in the east wing were restored, as were the Hall of Mirrors and new salons in the west wing. The sculpture of the façade's pediment shows an allegorical figure of Belgium flanked by groups representing Industry and Agriculture, by the sculptor Thomas Vinçotte. The new design includes a formal front garden with gilded railings, gates and balustrades, separating the building from the Place des Palais.
Contemporary
The work left unfinished at the death of Leopold II in 1909 and Maquet in 1911 was taken up under King Albert I by Maquet's pupil, , who rebuilt the Hôtel de la Liste Civile. Interrupted by the First World War, it resumed in 1920. In 1930, the interior of the east wing was rebuilt. In 1934–1936, the study plan for the ground floor was drawn up by Henri van de Velde. The west wing was inhabited by Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, who converted the greenhouse into the Flemish Hall in 1938.
Since then, apart from maintenance and restoration work, there has not been any more major transformations. The royal apartments were still occupied until 1935, but after Queen Astrid's death, King Leopold III chose to live in the Palace of Laeken, like all the kings who have succeeded him. The palace's interior was completely renovated in 1955–1958. In 1987, the Ministry of Public Works undertook the restoration, among others, of the Empire Room, the Throne Room and the Small and Large White Drawing Rooms. Since 1965, the palace has been open to the public regularly from 21 July (Belgian National Day) until the beginning of September.
Around 2010, some of the palace's halls were converted into meeting rooms, with adapted sound systems and facilities for simultaneous interpretation. In March 2023, new renovation work began on the palace's façade, including the installation of double glazing. The balustrades, stone stairs, garden walls, gates and fences are also being repaired. The project cost approximately €6 million.
Exterior
The Royal Palace, imposing and majestic, is characterised by many revival styles, of which Leopold II was a supporter. The building is made up of three parts: a central wing, marked by a projection to the north and south; an east wing; and a west wing, each surrounding a large rectangular courtyard accessible by road from the north and south. The complex is surrounded by formal gardens, French style at the front, English style at the rear, and entirely enclosed by balustraded walls.
The main façade, which is completely symmetrical, is crowned in the middle with a large pediment. Only the colonnade and balcony of the old palace have been preserved. The street was shifted to make room for the front garden, consisting of three dug-in parterres. Extending the palace symmetrically towards the east and west along the street side are curved galleries ending in two pavilions on the corners, attached to the Hôtel de la Liste Civile to the east, and to the Hôtel Belle-Vue to the west.
Interior The Royal Palace is especially striking for the magnificence of its interiors and some important works of art are exhibited there.
Grand Staircase
Located on the site of the former , the Grand Staircase was designed by Alphonse Balat in 1868 and 1872. In front of the central flight, in a false loggia, dominates a statue of Peace in the guise of Minerva made by the sculptor Charles-Auguste Fraikin in 1877. The steps are made of white marble and the banisters of green marble enhanced with bronze decoration.
Access to this staircase is via a vestibule housing the busts of some Kings and Queens of the Belgians. Two full-length portraits of the current sovereigns frame the door. One also finds in these spaces two bronze candelabra taking up the motifs of the Dying Slave and the Rebellious Slave by Michelangelo, as well as two Egyptian statues of the goddess Sekhmet probably brought back by the young Prince Leopold during his trips to the Orient.
Large Anteroom
The Large Anteroom was used under William I of the Netherlands as the Throne Room. Its decoration is therefore loaded with many political symbols relating to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Produced by the sculptors François Rude and around 1826, the frieze running all around the room thus represents the four main economic activities of the country (Trade, Navigation, Industry and Agriculture) and the four virtues of good governance (Abundance, Prudence, Armed force and Peace). The frieze was reworked under Leopold II to include his cipher and the coat of arms of Belgium.