Laken

Laken

Laken (Dutch) or Laeken (French) is a residential suburb in north-west Brussels (postal code : B-1020), Belgium. It belongs to the municipality of the City of Brussels.

Architecture

The Royal Castle of Laeken, official home of the Belgian Royal Family is situated here. The castle was built between 1782-1784 by Charles de Wailly. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1890 and rebuilt and extended by Alphonse Balat. The French architect Charles Girault gave it its present outline in 1902. It has been the royal residence since the accession to the throne of King Leopold I in 1831. The domain also contains the magnificent royal greenhouses of Laeken, a set of dome-shaped constructions, accessible to the public only a few days a year. They were designed as by Alphonse Balat, with the cooperation of the young Victor Horta.

A little south of the domain, you can find the neo-gothic Church of Our Lady, initially built as a mausoleum for queen Louise-Marie, wife of Leopold I, whose children included Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico. The architect was Joseph Poelaert, designer of the famed Brussels Palace of Justice. The church contains the royal crypt, where the members of the Belgian royal family are buried. The cemetery behind the church is known as the "Belgian Père Lachaise" because it used to be the burial place of the rich and the famous. It harbours the graves of, among others, Fernand Khnopff and Maria Malibran and also features an original cast of "Thinker" by Auguste Rodin.

A little north of the domain stand the contrasting Chinese Pavilion and the Japanese Tower. The Chinese Pavilion was commissioned by King Leopold II. The halls are designed in Louis XIV-style and Louis-XVI-style and decorated with Chinese motifs, chinaware and silverware. The Japanese Tower is a pagoda, inspired by a construction Leopold saw at the Paris Exposition of 1900. King Leopold II asked it's architect Alexandre Marcel to build him a similar one in Laeken.

Other places of interest are the Atomium, the former goods station of Thurn and Taxis, Brupark, the King Baudouin stadium and the Heysel exhibition park.

External links


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Laken — Laken …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • Laken — bedeutet: Bettlaken ist eine aus Leinen oder Baumwollstoff hergestellte Auflage für Matratzen Laken (Volk) sind ein kaukasisches Volk Laken (Belgien) ist ein Ort in Belgien Siehe auch: Lake …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Laken — (heutige Form ndd.) Sn std. (8. Jh., Form 15. Jh.) Stammwort. Ursprünglich niederdeutsches Wort (mndd. laken, mndl. laken, as. lakan), dem ahd. lah(h)an, mhd. lachen entspricht. Zu g. * lak na (oder * lakana ) Stück Gewebe , auch in anord. lak,… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • Laken [1] — Laken, 1) so v.w. Tuch; 2) so v.w. Leinwand; 3) in Niedersachsen so v.w. Betttuch …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Laken [2] — Laken, Schloß, so v.w. Laeken …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Laken — Laken, leinener, halbleinener oder baumwollener Stoff zu Bettüchern …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Laken — Laken: Das im 15. Jh. aus dem Niederd. übernommene Wort für »Betttuch« geht zurück auf asächs. lakan »Tuch, Decke; Vorhang; Gewand«, das mit der hochd. Entsprechung ahd. lahhan, mhd. lachen »Tuch, Decke« auf germ. *lakana »Tuch« beruht. Das Wort… …   Das Herkunftswörterbuch

  • laken — obs. f. lack v.1; variant of lakin …   Useful english dictionary

  • Laken — Betttuch; Leinen * * * La|ken [ la:kn̩], das; s, : großes Tuch, das als Unterlage für den im Bett Liegenden dient: das Laken wechseln. Zus.: Bettlaken. * * * La|ken 〈n. 14〉 1. Betttuch (BettLaken) 2. großes Tuch (BadeLaken) …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Laken — 1. An dem feinsten Laken ist der grösste Betrug. – Winckler, III, 17. 2. Wat kannst du groewe heien1 Laken doch den Mensken haüferdig2 maken, hadde de Biur sagt, doa hadde en niggen Kiyl3 anne hat. (Westf.) 1) Haden, werchen, von Werrig (Werch)… …   Deutsches Sprichwörter-Lexikon

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