The Botanical Garden of Brussels stands on Rue Royale

Rue Royale, Brussels

Rue Royale or Koningsstraat is a street in Brussels, Belgium on both municipalities of Schaerbeek and City of Brussels. It is limited to the south by the Place Royale in the city center and to the north by Place de la Reine/Koninginplein in Schaerbeek...

, near the Northern Quarter

Northern Quarter (Brussels)

The Northern Quarter is the central business district of Brussels, Belgium. Similarly to the Zuidas in Amsterdam or La Défense in Paris, the Northern Quarter consists of a concentrated collection of high-rise buildings....

 financial district in Brussels.

Originally founded in 1826 and partly designed by architect Tilman-François Suys

Tilman-François Suys

Tilman-François Suys or Tieleman Frans Suys , was a Belgian architect who also worked in the Netherlands....

, the main orangery

Orangery

An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...

 (Le Botanique) is composed of a central rotunda with a dome, and two side aisles with windows at the ends.

After decades of financial uncertainty, the Belgian state bought the garden in 1870 and commissioned various fountains, electrical lighting, and an extensive program of sculpture that would both beautify the park and develop the country's public art and artists. Fifty-two sculptures were executed between 1894 and 1898, a project overseen by two well-known sculptors, Constantin Meunier

Constantin Meunier

Constantin Meunier , Belgian painter and sculptor, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels.His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, "The Garland," shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, he abandoned the chisel for the brush...

 and Charles van der Stappen

Charles van der Stappen

Charles van der Stappen , was a Belgian sculptor, born in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.- Life :Educated at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels , van der Stappen's contribution to the Brussels Salon was "The Faun's Toilet" of 1869, and thereafter he began to produce work of a high and novel...

. Some of the 43 sculptors involved include:

• Arthur Craco
• Victor De Haen
• Isidore De Rudder
• Albert Desenfans
  Albert Desenfans
  Constant Albrecht Desenfans was a Belgian sculptor.Desenfans studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels as a pupil of Eugène Simonis. Most of the work in his career is related to the building and public park projects of King Leopold II of Belgium in the years between 1870 and 1907...
  
  
• Julien Dillens
  Julien Dillens
  Julien Dillens was a Belgian sculptor born in Antwerp, the son of the painter Hendrick Joseph Dillens.Dillens studied under Eugène Simonis at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. In 1877 he received the Prix de Rome for A Gaulish Chief taken Prisoner by the Romans...
  
  
• Paul Du Bois
  Paul Du Bois
  Paul Du Bois was a Belgian sculptor and medalist, born in Aywaille, and died in Uccle.Du Bois was a student of Eugène Simonis and Charles van der Stappen...
  
  
• Jules Lagae
  Jules Lagae
  Jules Lagae was a Belgian sculptor and medallist, born in Roeselare. Lagae was taught by Joseph Jacquet and Charles van der Stappen at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He also worked with Jef Lambeaux and Julien Dillens....
  
  
• Léon Mignon
  Léon Mignon
  Léon Mignon was a Belgian sculptor working in a realist idiom, known for his depiction of bulls.Born at Liège, Léon Mignon completed his studies at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège in 1871...
  
  
• Victor Rousseau
  Victor Rousseau
  Victor Rousseau was a Belgian sculptor and medalist.- Life :Rousseau was of Walloon heritage and descended from a line of stonemasons. He began carving stone at age 11, working at the site of the Law Courts of Brussels, designed by architect Joseph Poelaert...
  
  
• Charles Samuel
  Charles Samuel
  Charles Samuel was a Belgian sculptor, engraver and medalist.- Life :Samuel was born in Brussels and trained there. He studied engraving with Léopold Wiener, sculpture with Eugène Simonis, Joseph Jaquet and Charles van der Stappen, and medal-making with the goldsmith and sculptor Philippe Wolfers...
  
  
• French sculptor François Rude
  François Rude
  François Rude was a French sculptor. He was the stepfather of Paul Cabet, a sculptor.Born in Dijon, he worked at his father's trade as a stovemaker till the age of sixteen, but received training in drawing from François Devosges, where he learned that a strong, simple contour was an invaluable...
  
  

In 1938 most of the botanical resources were removed to the new site National Botanic Garden of Belgium

National Botanic Garden of Belgium

The National Botanic Garden of Belgium is located in the grounds of Bouchout Castle near the village of Meise, just north of Brussels. It is one of the largest botanical gardens in the world with an extensive collection of living plants in addition to a herbarium of over 3 million specimens...

 on the outskirts of the city. The original garden now stands as a cultural center, while its historical statues, and its remarkable collection of species of large trees, stands intact.

It can be accessed by the Botanique/Kruidtuin metro station

Botanique/Kruidtuin metro station

The Botanique or Kruidtuin metro station is a Brussels metro station on the northern segment of line 2. It opened serving a premetro line on 18 August 1974 and became a full metro station on 2 October 1988. The station is located under the small ring at King Street in the municipality of the...

.

Sources

• Belgium and Holland, including the grand-duchy of Luxembourg ..., Part 11 By Karl Baedeker (Firm)
• Frommer's Brussels and Bruges Day by Day By Mary Anne Evans, pg. 95
• Partially translated from French Wikipedia article accessed 8/31/10