Brussels Park (Parc de Bruxelles / Warandepark), Belgium

Brussels Park, known as Parc de Bruxelles in French and Warandepark in Dutch, is the largest park in central Brussels. Covering about 13 hectares, it occupies the former Warande, the hunting ground of the medieval Coudenberg Palace of the Dukes of Brabant. Today it lies between the Royal Palace and the Palace of the Nation, the seat of the Belgian Federal Parliament.

The present park was laid out between 1776 and 1783 by the French architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard and the Austrian landscape architect Joachim Zinner. Its symmetrical neoclassical plan features straight avenues, lawns and rows of trees, and some see Masonic symbols in the pattern of its paths. Around 60 statues inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, some by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle, line the avenues, and two fountain basins add to the formal look.

The park has often been a stage for public life. In September 1830, during the Belgian Revolution, Dutch troops entrenched here were besieged by Brussels volunteers for four days before withdrawing. Inside the park stand the Théâtre Royal du Parc of 1782, the Vauxhall pavilion and a twelve-sided cast-iron bandstand from 1841.

Today the park is a free, shaded retreat in the city centre, with benches, walkways and lawns for picnics and jogging. On Belgian National Day, 21 July, it hosts a popular festival, and the nearest metro stations are Parc/Park and Trône/Troon.