Heysel plateau
The Heysel Plateau (French Heysel / Dutch Heizel) is located in the north of Brussels in the Laeken / Laken district .
The world exhibition of 1935 and the world exhibition of 1958 ( Expo 58 ) took place on the Heysel Plateau . On the Heysel Plateau there is also a miniature exhibition area, the Mini-Europe , numerous sports facilities, etc. a. the King Baudouin Stadium , which was called the Heysel Stadium until 1985, the Atomium , the Palais du Centenaire (French: Palais du Centenaire), a planetarium and a subtropical leisure pool until 2018.
To the east is the Parc d'Osseghem / Ossegem-Park , a wooded park of 17 hectares with a forest stage. To the southeast lies Laken Park , which in turn is adjoined by the royal estates and Laken Castle .
history
The word Heysel comes from the local Dutch and expresses the poor vegetation, similar to the German “heather”. At the foot of the Heysel plateau a little to the east of today's St. Lambert Church, a medieval hamlet "Heysel" is documented, which was first mentioned in the 16th century, but of which no traces have survived.
There is also evidence of a brook in the Middle Ages, the Heyselbeek , which flowed from the plateau into the Molenbeek. It took the course of today's rue du Heysel / Heiselstraat and joined another stream at the level of St. Lambert's Church, where a watermill is attested in the Middle Ages. From there it flowed along today's avenue Jan Sobieski / Jan Sobieskilaan to Molenbeek.
At the height of the Heysel plateau there were two other hamlets in the Middle Ages, Vleurgat and Osseghem. The latter was located just south of today's Roi-Baudouin Stadium and gave its name to today's Parc d'Osseghem / Ossegem-Park , while Vleurgat was further north near the Chaussée romaine / Romeinse Steenweg and is where the Vleurgat residential area is now .
The Ossegem estate was first mentioned in the early Middle Ages and was possibly on the site of a former Roman country villa. In 1152, a sale of the "Hof van Ossegem" by the heirs of Meinard van Brussel to the Abbey of Affligem is documented, to which the Church of Our Lady of Laeken was subordinated. The Ossegem-Hof grew into a small village, which in the 18th century also included a Speelhuys , a pavilion where the Archbishop of Mechelen stayed when he was in Brussels. Later, a girls' school for agriculture and household science was set up in Ossegem, but this had to give way to the facilities at Expo '35.
Numerous quarries were operated on the Heisel plateau, which supplied the building material for the Abbey Church of Affligem, the Church of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel , the Jesuit Church in Antwerp and the Church of Our Lady of Finistère in Brussels . The quarries were closed towards the end of the 17th century. The traces can still be seen on the slopes to the east, the Kattenberg mountains and the depressions in the Parc d'Osseghem .
The Heisel Plateau was rural and sparsely populated until the 20th century. However, King Leopold II planned to develop the area in the direct vicinity of his castle into a modern and sophisticated district. There were already plans with large boulevards and parks.
According to a decision by the city of Brussels in 1927, a universally usable stadium was built on the Heisel Plateau to mark the centenary of the founding of the state, with a capacity of 75,000 and which was first used on 23 August 1930 for the world championship in track racing . This is today's King Baudouin Stadium .
A world exhibition was to take place on the Heisel Plateau in 1930 to mark the centenary, but it was postponed after the Great Depression and did not take place until 1935 . A large modernist exhibition palace and a national park were built for this, but the hamlets of Osseghem and Vleurgat were demolished for this purpose.
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean-Jacques Jespers: Dictionnaire des noms de lieux en Wallonie et à Bruxelles , Lannoo 2005, p. 339
- ↑ Sofie Bonné: De Heizel, een heuvel met geschiedenis Canvas Curiosa, May 4, 2018, link accessed on August 7, 2019.
Coordinates: 50 ° 53 ′ 46.2 ″ N , 4 ° 20 ′ 19.7 ″ E