FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY PARK

With its thirty hectares, the Parc du Cinquantenaire is like a natural lung for those who, day after day, transform themselves into hard-working ants in the nearby European district. In addition to the beauty of the (historic!) buildings to be found here, or the pleasure of the many museums that have taken up residence here, the Parc du Cinquantenaire is above all a place where you can enjoy a stroll during your lunch break, go for a jog whenever you have a bit of free time, or simply take a break with the family at the weekend from the shopping frenzy of the Tongres district.

Parc du Cinquantenaire was originally an army parade ground. In 1880, it hosted the exhibition celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Belgian state. Today, it is the setting for the monumental archway that unites the Cinquantenaire museums. To the south, the Royal Museum of Art and History (www.kmkg-mrah.be), to the north, the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History (www.klm-mra.be). Next to the Museum of Art and History, a vast hall houses the richly endowed private Automobile Museum.

The arcade, planned by Leopold IIas early as 1880, did not see the light of day until 1905, when Belgian parliamentarians deemed its cost too high. The Congo paid for it, via His Majesty's coffers. Nevertheless, this splendid triumphal arch is surmounted by a chariot drawn by a lively quadriga of horses, whose greenish bronze combines with the grey stone of the colonnade. The arcade was designed by Girault (architect of the Grand Palais in Paris), and the quadriga by Thomas Vinçotte, a Belgian sculptor known for a number of public works.

Another interesting artefact is the monument to colonization, located in the north-west corner of the park. It shows how the brave Belgian soldier in the service of His Majesty the King (Leopold II, in this case) frees the unfortunate native from the clutches of the odious Arab slave-owner. One hundred years later, the ungrudging kingdom welcomed the nearby Great Mosque of Brussels, in the same corner of the same park.

Justa few meters away is a small neoclassical building. This is the Pavillon des Passions Humaines, a Victor Horta aedicula housing the beautiful fresco of the Passions Humaines, a tumultuous wall of thighs, buttocks, breasts and flesh in general, the work of the romantic sculptor Jef Lambeaux. After years of consensual prudery, we've decided to open it to the public. It is also managed by the Royal Museums of Art and History.