From place du Trone to the European Parliament building Travel Video Guide

From place du Trone to the European Parliament building Travel Itinerary

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Part of the petit ring and on the metro line, place du Trone is distinguished by its double lion gates and a sooty, life-size statue of Leopold II, perched on his horse. From here, rue du Luxembourg heads east to bisect a small park whose northern half contains a modest memorial to Julien Dillens, a popular nineteenth-century sculptor responsible for the effigy of Everard 't Serclaes on the Grand-Place. Just along the street, the place du Luxembourg has had varying fortunes, but now it's on the up, with fashionable cafes moving in as its three-storey, stone-trimmed houses are refurbished. In the middle of the square is a statue of John Cockerill (1790-1840), a British entrepreneur who built a steel-making empire in southern Belgium. His pioneering efforts certainly transformed the local economy - and his company still exists today - but the loyal workers at his feet stretch the point and so does the statue's inscription - Au pere des ouvriers ("To the father of the workers").

On the far side of the square, behind the tatty Gare du Quartier Leopold railway station, rises a veritable cliff-face of EU office-block glass. To behold this behemoth at close quarters, follow the signs (to rue Wiertz) through the station. Fortunately, there's a breach in the office block dead ahead, and just beyond it - through the passageway and down the steps - is the European Union Parliament building , another glass, stone and steel whopper equipped with a curved glass roof that rises to a height of 70m. Completed in 1997, the building contains a

large, semicircular assembly room as well as the offices of the President of the Parliament and their General Secretariat. The structure has its admirers, but is known locally as the " caprice des dieux ". Although it depends on what's happening in the Parliament, you can usually take a free, thirty-minute audio-guided tour of the building (Mon-Thurs 10am-3pm, Fri 10am, Sat 10am, 11.30am & 2.30pm) - check opening times at the information centre in the passageway.

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