Expo \'58

Expo '58 is the name under which is generally indicated the World Fair of Brussels, organized in 1958 on the plate of the Heysel, and which attracted nearly 42 million visitors.

Expo 58 which left a deep memory in Belgium was also the pretext of important upheavals and work in the town of Brussels whose boulevards were transformed into expressways.

The Atomium, built for the occasion became one of the brand images impossible to circumvent of Brussels.

Context

First World Fair of after Second world war, the event is deeply related to its time. In 1958, the traces of the conflict in Western Europe start to grow blurred. The Cold war makes temporarily place with the Peaceful coexistence, UNO, NATO and the European Economic community, has just been created. The disorders heralding inevitable the Décolonisation are not perceived yet in Belgium. The first Sputnik is in orbit, the technological innovations emerge the ones after the others. In the middle of the glorious Thirty, the population enters the Consumer society and wants to believe to be at the one period old dawn of peace, prosperity and progress. This context encourages the participating countries in compete of ingeniousness in the design of their houses and the ingeniousness of the innovations presented. All that creates a true atmosphere of amazement and euphoria.

The exposure

Initially planned for the year 1955 and deferred because of the War of Korea and the international tensions, the exposure is inaugurated, at the conclusion three years of work, by the king Baudouin the April 17th 1958 and is held until the October 19th same year.

To the site of the Heysel, whose exhibition center already accommodated the World Fair of Brussels of 1935, are joined the park of Laeken, the wood of Ossegem and the Château of the View-point and its park, the unit representing a surface of 200 hectares. The displacement of the visitors is ensured there by a Téléphérique and a network of trains.

Among the 51 participating countries, the most attended most important houses and are those of the Soviet Union and the the United States, this last presented a film to 360° named America the Beautiful , presented later by the Disney parks.

Transformations of the city related to the expo

Sources

site of plane Atomium
of the site of the exposure

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