Berlaymont building
| Berlaymont building | |
|---|---|
 Berlaymont building |
|
| Data | |
| place | Brussels |
| architect | Lucien De Vestel, Jean Gilson, André Polak and Jean Polak |
| Construction year | 1963-1969 |
| Floor space | 241,515 m² |
Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 37 " N , 4 ° 22 ′ 58" E
The Berlaymont building in Brussels , built between 1963 and 1967, is the seat of the European Commission . It is located on the eastern edge of the city of Brussels on rue de la Loi / Wetstraat , where it forms the Robert Schuman roundabout (rond-point Robert Schuman / Robert Schumanplein) . The European Council , the Foreign Service of the European Union , numerous embassies and international organizations are located there in the so-called Europaviertel in the immediate vicinity .
origin
The name "Berlaymont" comes from a women's monastery of the Augustinian order , that of the Couvent des Dames de Berlaymont , founded by Marguerite de Lalaing in 1625 , which was housed on the site of today's office building from 1864. The two hectare park of the “Berlaymont Ladies” monastery was located in the place of the current building .
Seat of the European Commission
The property was bought by the Belgian state on May 25, 1960 as a building area and was transferred to the European Community for a price of 552.9 million euros . The design comes from the architect Lucien De Vestel. The cross-shaped building was built from 1963 to 1967 under the direction of the architects Jean Gilson, André Polak and Jean Polak .
In 1992 the Berlaymont had to be closed due to asbestos pollution and was extensively renovated . On October 21, 2004, the modernized building was reopened in the presence of the then Commission President Romano Prodi and the then Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt . In the same year, the European Commission acquired the building, which until then had been owned by the Belgian state.
The Berlaymont building houses the offices of the President of the EU Commission and the other 26 commissioners as well as their personal staff. The offices of the General Secretariat , the Legal Service and the press officer of the European Commission are also located there .
- The European Commission logo
The logo of the European Commission picks up on the Berlaymont building in a stylized form. 
The European Commission logo at the entrance to the Berlaymont building.
Web links
- Website of the sponsoring company Berlaymont 2000 (French, Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ C'est notre histoire . Le Brusseleir 2015, May 2015 edition, page 23