Royal Greenhouses in Laeken

The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken will be open to the public from 17 April through 10 May 2026. Visitors can discover the architecture of Alphonse Balat, Victor Horta’s mentor, and enjoy the lush vegetation within this impressive glass-and-steel structure. This unique piece of Belgian heritage can be admired in all its splendour during a pleasant walk that takes you both inside and outside.

The exact dates for the ticket launch will be posted later. Keep a close eye on this website and our social media.

During the 19th century, advances in construction techniques, particularly the use of metal and glass, enabled a new type of building: the greenhouse.

In 1873, architect Alphonse Balat designed a complex of greenhouses for King Leopold II that complemented the Castle of Laeken’s classical style. The complex resembles a glass city set in an undulating park landscape.

The monumental pavilions, the glass cupolas, the long arcades that cut through the grounds like covered streets, are more than just an anecdote about an exotic plant garden or the constructive applications of iron and glass, and a building programme called the ‘Ideal Glass Palace’.

They are the culmination of various meetings, letters, sketches and plans exchanged between architect Alphonse Balat and King Leopold II. But above all, they inspired the new Belgian architecture of the day, and their influence spread, together with Art Nouveau, throughout the world.

The present-day plant collection at the Greenhouses in Laeken is valuable from three viewpoints: 

• It contains some of the plants belonging to King Leopold II's original collections.
• The current collections still respect the spirit that prevailed when the original collections were planted.
• Finally, the Royal Greenhouses still contain an enormous number of rare and valuable plants.

 

Each spring, the Greenhouses of Laeken are opened to the public, for almost three weeks. This tradition has been carried on for a century.

 

 

 

 

Overall view

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Embarcadere

Built in 1886-1887, the Pier Greenhouse was intended to receive guests when the King was holding court in the Winter Garden or the Dining Room Greenhouse.

The staircase leads to the Winter Garden. At the ends of the Pier are two statues by Charles Van der Stappen, Dawn and Evening. Medinilla (a tropical plant from the Philippines) are laid out in Chinese vases brought back by King Leopold II from a trip to the Far East while he was still Duke of Brabant.

 

The Winter Garden

Designed by architect Alphonse Balat and built between 1874 and 1876, the Winter Garden was the first greenhouse in the imposing city of glass, which would be built on the Laeken estate over a period of thirty years. The greenhouse’s dimensions allowed for tall palm trees to be planted here, most of which date to the time of Leopold II. Once completed, the greenhouse was used for royal receptions.

The Winter Garden will be closed to the public this year due to renovation work.