Laeken Things to Do

In this huge green house you will find a plentitude of azalea's all ordered accordingly to their colour.

Here is the group of the red ones.

The contemporary collection in the royal greenhouses is of real big value and more specific in three kind:.

First of all, a certain amount of plants are still the original ones as "planted by" Leopold II.
Second the contemporary situation is still in the same spirit as the original one was.
And as last but not least, the greenhouse contains a lot of extreme rare and valid plant species.

and watch the magnificien dome, the royal crown on the top.
Soon you will find out how it looks inside!
In 1873architect Alphonse Balat designed a greenhouse complex for King Leopold II.
It had to "communicate" with the classic style of the Palac. The greenhouses addapted the shape of a glazier city, in the midst of a hilly park landscape.
These royal greenhouses are the result of numerous conversations, letters, scetches, pre studies and designed, exchanged between architect Alphonse Balat and King Leopold II.

They were the new inspiration source of the new Belgian architecture and became, together with the Art Nouveau style, world famous.

It is marvelous to see all the sites of this greenhouse construction.
Especially on a sunny day, the green of the metal and the colour of the glas in the sun looks marvelous.

During the 19th century, the advanced knowledge and technics and new materials, led to the combination of metal and glas and in this way to a whole new style: the green house.

Between the royal palace and the street, seperated by a huge fence, there is this long path you have to walk.
Ofcourse the royal family rather drives this path. Our present king, king Albert II is a huge motor fan.
At the back you will find the Albert I memorate tower.

From inside the park you have a look at the Japanese tower, near the Chinese pavilion, that both are located outside the park.
I hope the pics taken with my reflex camera will be better :-)
then I will add a few of those!

The statues I was talking about in the previous tip are seperated from eachother by this row of beautiful flowers in baskets.
Here I found the one back that I saw last year and who's picture is in my t-logues.
It is a green spiral one with the pink flowers, but not in focus on this picture.
I have the impression the gardeners are changing a few things to keep us interested again each visit.

In this huge green house you will find a plentitude of azalea's all ordered accordingly to their colour.

Here are the yellow and orange ones.
If you are lucky and the sun shines, then the sunbeams will heighligten their colours.

In this huge green house you will find a plentitude of azalea's all ordered accordingly to their colour.

Here are the fine white and yellow ones, seperated by a little artificial waterfall and white stones.