Parc Léopold/Leopoldspark

   The Parc Léopold (.01 ha [.024 acres]) in Ixelles emerged in 1851 and was originally intended to serve as a zoo. Financial difficulties forced the private company that had been formed to build the zoo to liquidate in 1876 and the state acquired the buildings and grounds of the company in 1877. The park was used for concerts and charity events. In 1892-1894, four scientific institutes were founded under the impetus of Ernest Solvay and Paul Héger. This cité scientifique included two institutes of physiology; an institute of hygiene, bacteriology, and therapeutics; and an institute of anatomy and histology. Other institutes followed, including an institute of sociology (1901), Institut Pasteur (1903), a school of commerce (1904), and institutes of physics (1912) and chemistry (1913). The first four institutes were joined to the faculty of medicine of the Université libre de Bruxelles and moved to the boulevard de Waterloo in 1921. The others were relocated to the Solbosch campus in 1929. The park has become a green space within the European district. Funds were approved by the government of the Brussels Capital Region for refurbishment in 2000.

   Situated in the park, the Institut royal des Sciences naturelles is housed in a building whose right wing, designed by Henri Beyaert about 1860, follows a neo-Romanesque style corresponding to a convent of the Redemptorist Sisters that had been located on the site and whose left wing was built by architect Émile Janlet (1839-1918). The buildings were enlarged in 1905 and again in 1930, when a tower block addition was raised, the city's first such edifice.