Palace of Laeken

The palace was built between 1782 and 1784 in Laeken, then a rural village outside Brussels, after the plans of the French architect and urbanist Charles de Wailly, under supervision of the Belgian-Austrian architect Louis Montoyer. It was originally named the Palace of Schonenberg (French: Château de Schonenberg, Dutch: Kasteel van Schonenberg) and was to serve as a summer residence for the Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands, Duchess Maria Christina of Austria and her husband Prince Albrecht of Saxony-Teschen.[2] The French cabinetmaker Jean-Joseph Chapuis provided the royal furniture.

On 21 July 1803, Nicolas-Jean Rouppe, the commissioner of the department of the Dyle, received Napoleon at the Palace of Laeken. Napoleon stayed there with the Empress Josephine in August 1804 on his way from awarding the first Légion d'honneur to his troops at Boulogne, to his progress along the Rhine, and later, during the Hundred Days in 1815, prematurely made this proclamation from the palace:

To the Belgians and the inhabitants of the left bank of the Rhine. The ephemeral success of my enemies detached you for a moment from my empire. In my exile, upon a rock in the sea, I heard your complaint; the God of Battles has decided the fate of your beautiful provinces; Napoleon is among you; you are worthy to be Frenchmen. Rise in a body; join my invincible phalanxes to exterminate the remainder of these barbarians, who are your enemies and mine: they fly with rage and despair in their hearts.

— The Imperial Palace of Lacken, 17 June 1815. (Signed) Napoleon, The Imperial Palace of Lacken, 17 June 1815. By the Emperor, The Major-General of the Army, Count Bertrand."[4]

• 
  The Palace of Schonenberg in the 18th century
• 
  Engraving of the Palace of Laeken, from Pierre-Jacques Goetghebuer's Choix des monuments (1827)
• 
  Floor plan of the palace (Goetghebuer, 1827)

After Belgian Independence, Rouppe, by then mayor of the City of Brussels, received the new King Leopold I at the Palace of Laeken on 21 July 1831, the day of Leopold's coronation. The palace was partly destroyed by fire in 1890, and was rebuilt and extended by the architect Alphonse Balat. The French architect Charles Girault gave it its present outline in 1902, with the addition of two new monumental wings forming a "U" shape with the main facade. The domain also contains the large Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, a set of monumental dome-shaped constructions, accessible to the public only a few days a year. They were also designed by Balat, with the cooperation of the young Victor Horta.

The Palace of Laeken has been the royal residence since Leopold I's accession to the throne in 1831. However, upon their accession to the throne in 1993, King Albert II and Queen Paola preferred to remain living in the Belvédère, a château on the grounds of the park surrounding the palace. The current occupants of the palace are King Philippe, Queen Mathilde and their four children.

• 
  The Palace of Laeken in 1880, etching from L'Illustration nationale
• 
  The Palace of Laeken on fire, 1 January 1890
• 
  Aftermath of the fire
• 
  The wing built by King Leopold II

• Demey, Thierry (2009). Léopold II (1865-1909). La marque royale sur Bruxelles (in French). Brussels: Badeaux. ISBN 978-2-9600414-8-4.
• Emerson, Barbara (1994). Léopold II, le royaume et l'empire (in French). Brussels: Duculot.
• Van Ypersele de Strihou, Anne and Paul (1991). Laeken, un château de l'Europe des Lumières (in French). Louvain-la-Neuve: Duculot. ISBN 978-2-8011-0984-7.