Botanical garden of Brussels

The Botanical garden (in Dutch: Kruidtuin ), located on the territory of the commune of Saint-Jose-ten-Noode, is a public park established with the site of the old botanical garden of Brussels.

As of after the annexation of the Belgium by the France in 1795, a first botanical garden is created along the first enclosure of the city, with the site of the gardens of the Ancien Palate of Coudenberg. The collection of the indigenous and exotic species arouses the interest of all quickly. But sacrificed to the extension of the habitat, it had to be rehoused elsewhere.

Thus in 1826, five notable, set on botany acquire a beautiful timbered, aired ground and fed well out of water, on which was created a unit sheltering the collections of plants.

Oscillating between monumental ambition and financial constraints, the development of the building of the botanical garden follows a particularly complex process where three essential personalities intervene: the architect Tilman-François Suys, Pierre-François Gineste and Jean-Baptiste Meeus-Wauters.

Plans and estimates for the distribution of the garden would have been also requested from the architect Tilman-François Suys; but it is the plan of Petersen which is submitted to the council.

The building and the gardens will be inaugurated officially with fireworks, pastoral festival and banquet at the time of the first exposure of the products of the horticulture organized by the Company of Ier to September 3rd 1829. The Orangerie is composed of a central rotunda with cupola and two side alleys glazed with, at the ends, two buildings with columns. The diagram of the monumental structure corresponds to that frequently used at the 19th century.

As the operating company could not live of love and clear water, a trade of plants settled with the Orangerie as of 1835, and in basement was practiced various cultures which was to lead curiously to the birth of the Chicon. Alas! botany was not going to know only this gastronomical happy event.

The period of 1837 with 1841 was in this respect particularly difficult. The money worries made on several occasions tremble the company which moreover by the force of the things and the insistence of its creditors multiplied its business transactions with the detriment of the scientific research. To leave these repeated crises the various found solutions reinforced the supervision of the Government on the company. The last act of this evolution was played in 1867: the town of Brussels wished to become the majority shareholder of the Company; this would have enabled him to carry out in the more or less short term its project of allotment or to use the ground for the construction of a Palais of the Art schools . The question will remain of topicality until in 1870, when the State repurchases the garden.

It is at the extreme end of the 19th century that the carved decoration of the Botanical garden is ordered and carried out. It is decided to equip the park with a series of sculptures with an aim at the same time of embellishing it and of stimulating public art. The project is entrusted to two sculptor recognized of the time, Constantin Meunier and Charles Van der Stappen. Those take care of the general design and of the drafts and entrust the realization of it to their collaborators. The unit includes/understands 52 sculptures, carried out between 1894 and 1898, of which various fountains, of the carved groups and the figures evoking time, seasons, plants and animals, as well as electric luminaries

Place of daily walks or exceptional festivals, the garden is expensive in the hearts of Brussels; testimonys of the success of this “public garden” abound. Like scientific establishment, “it is at the level of the most important gardens of the whole world”. All these successes will be celebrated with dignity at the time of the 40e birthday of the resumption of the garden by the State in 1910. Its survival, however, is again threatened.

In 1935, work of the Jonction North-Midday does not save it: it is thus question of moving the institution about a vaster site. The problem of the reassignment or the refitting of the buildings and the garden arises. It is on their dubious future that another project is grafted: that to build in Brussels a large public library.

The site escapes from accuracy from the pure and simple destruction, but it therefore is not saved of it.

In October 1938, the decision to move the botanical garden is taken. Happy decision, because it did not finish suffering from urban modernization. January 1st 1939, the State takes possession of the 93 hectares of the field of Bouchout, in the commune of Meise, which will be devoted from now on to botany and or is today the national Botanical garden of Belgium. As of next April, the plants of the ecological collection of outdoor are moved, then it will be the turn of the trees and shrubs, then of the large re-installed greenhouse with Bouchout.

In an unrecognizable site, the building is saved abandonment by the decision of the Ministry for the French Communauté to reconvert it in arts center.

Last element which decorates the high part of the park, a garden of the iris was inaugurated in 1995.

Sculptures

the Eagle of Henri Boncquet
the Winter or the Old woman Bûcheronne of Pierre Braecke
Ivy of Arthur Craco
the Vulture of Alfred Crick
the Palm tree of Victor De Haen
the Concern of Maurice De Mathelin
Chèvrefeuille of Eugene De Pleyn
Héron of Isidore De Rudder
the Lily of Albert Desenfans
the Condor of Godefroid Devreese
the Bay-tree of Julien Dillens
Four Elements of Paul Dubois
the Panther of Jean-Marie Gaspar
the Tiger of Jean Hérain
the Thistle of Frans Joris
Four Old of Jules Lagae
the Stork of Edmond Lefever
the Swan of Edmond Lefever
Spring or the Shepherdess of Hippolyte Leroy
the Fall or the Sower of Constantin Meunier
the Summer or the Harvester of Constantin Meunier
Olivier or Peace of Nice Leon
the Crocodile and the Snake of Emile Namur
the Vulture of Joseph Pollard
the Owl of Victor Rousseau
the Parrot of Victor Rousseau
Two Nymphs surrounding a Hard Source of François
the Lion of Charles Samuel
the Eagle of Alphonse de Tombay
the Boxwood of Gustave Van Hove

Internal bond

Botany, arts center

Satellite sight WikiMapia

External bond

Parks and Jardins of the Area Brussels-Capital

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