Atomium & Heyzel area, Brussels

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I've been in Brussels twice: the first one in 1971 for a good stay, but I didn't like the city, with exception to Grand Place and Atomium. Too dark for my expectations - I didn't know much outside the white and clear Portugal, when I crossed the Pyrenees for the first time, in those 70s...

The second one was for a short visit with the boys, and without time for more than a quick stop in Grand Place (and to lunch in Alfama, a good Portuguese restaurant close to it, with great memories from the first stay), we stopped also in Heysel park to visit the Chinese pavilion and Japanese tower.

Well, the are Belgian buildings with oriental style, built in the beginning of the 20th century, with decorative details coming from Shanghai and Yokohama.

The visit is easy and quick as we needed, if you don't use much time to see the temporary exhibit that you may find there, generally of oriental arts.

The entrance costs 3€ (closed on Mondays) and it is free in the first Wednesday of each month.

One more visit... better photos... still nice!

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In addition to The Atomium and The Stadium, other interesting places on the Heysel Park are a large movie theatre (Kinepolis), a park which hosts miniature models of famous European buildings (Mini-Europe), a subtropical water park (Océade) and a planetarium.

Despite its status as Belgium's national stadium, Heysel was not well maintained. By the time of the 1985 European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool FC , it was literally crumbling. For example, the outer wall had been made of cinder block, and fans who didn't have tickets were seen kicking holes in it to get in. The abject stadium conditions, along with poor crowd control procedures, are widely considered to have contributed to the Heysel Stadium disaster just before the 1985 European match started .Following the disaster, the ground was only used for athletics. A decade after the disaster the ground was rebuilt and renamed "King Baudouin Stadium." The Belgian national football team has been using the "King Baudouin Stadium" for international matches.

"The Atomium" is a monument in Brussels, originally built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it stands 102 meters tall. It has nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times.

If there is a huge fair in the surroundings of Brussels, be sure it is in one of the halls of the Expo at the Heyzel Plateau.
The exhibition centre is managed by the city of Brussels and halls can be rented for this purposes.


It all started when five halls for the n halls for the 1935 Brussels Universal Exposition were constructed.

The eye catcher of the five buildings was Hall 5. It is the one you can see on the picture. It earned the name of Grand Palais and still is used as the Brussels Expo logo. A year final after completing the construction the first exhibitions, trade fairs, congresses and other events got organized.

Hall 3 was completed in late1940s.
Halls 7, 8 and 9 and the Patio were added to the complex in 1957.
In 1958 another Universal Exhibition took place in Brussels. The existing buildings were used for this event, and a new architectural masterpiece was added, the Atomium.
In 1977, Hall 11 was constructed.
Hall 12 was ready in 1989.
In 1993 the Auditorium opened its doors for the first time

Rome wasn't build in one day... but neither was the Brussels Expo !

This exhibition takes place at the Heizel halls from april 20 to november 6 2011.
Since the exhibiting of the real original artefacts holds a huge risk, the exhibition designers chose to have exact copies made of over 1.000 artefacts. When exhibiting the real artefacts, the exhibitions show a mere handful of original pieces. By choosing for copies, this exhibition offers the visitors a chance to see entire burial chamber of King Tut !
The designers have re-build 3 of the burial chambers of King Tut's tomb to the true dimensions. Therefore visitors get the impression upon entering that they themselves are the ones opening the tomb for the very first time !

Must see the Autonium. Built for an Expo in 1958--I believe--in the shape of an Atom.

The upper levels are closed to the public because they are used for scientific research, but even the lower levels are high enough to give a magnificent view.

This is a fascinating structure and seems to be quite a popular place to visit. There were great views, scientific displays and wonderful things to see here.

You can take the elevator to reach the open public levels, but one of the most impressive aspects, to me, was not taking the elevator down, rather desending through one of the "arms" of the structure. It was so steep that it seemed a surreal experience.

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The Atomium was built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair; it was designed by André Waterkeyn.

It is some 102 metres / 335 ft tall.

It comprises of nine steel spheres connected to form a cell of an iron crystal magnified some 165 billion times.

Tubes connect the spheres to the centre. They enclose escalators which connect the spheres and they contain exhibition space. The top sphere offers a panoramic view of Brussels. Each sphere is 18 metres in diameter.

It should be noted that there are always queues, and you will have a wait, but it is well worth it for the view.

Unfortunately, I have only been to Brussels once, on the way back from Rwanda nearly 16 years ago, and I was deathly ill with some sort of African parasite so I did not get to do much in the way of siteseeing and do not remember most of what I did see but there was one thing which I did see which will stay with me for quite some time. A leftover from the World's Fair of 1958, the Atomium is perhaps one of the two or three most memorable symbols of worldwide technological and cultural expositions. It is certainly far more eccentric than the 1964 Unisphere in New York or the 1962 Space Needle in Seattle. Conceived by an engineer, André Waterkeyn, it is a gigantic replica of an iron crystal molecule and was intended to symbolize “the peaceful use of atomic energy for scientific purposes.” Five of its nine spheres are accessible to visitors, as is its maze of interconnecting tubes.

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The Atomium is a structure made for the World Expo of 1958, that Brussels hosted. It's the model of an iron crystal cell unit, and it was designed by André Waterkeyn. Like many other landmarks, it wasn't intended to be there after the World Expo but it became one of Brussel's landmarks.

Of the 9 spheres, 5 can be visited - including the top one where there's a nice view of Brussels. Or you can try and do some composition pictures, like holding one of the spheres or like some Spanish guys that we encountered, who were trying to use one of the spheres as football and hit it with the head hehe.

Close to the Atomium, the park Mini-Europe can be visited but it was closed when we were there.