Leopold Park

Parc Léopold (French) or Leopoldspark (Dutch) is a public park located within the Leopold Quarter (European Quarter) of Brussels, adjacent to the Paul-Henri Spaak building, the seat of the European Parliament.

The 10-hectare (25 acre) park was opened to the public in 1880 after the unpopular Royal Zoological Garden (Jardin Royal de Zoologie) had been removed. During the following years, a campus for the famous Solvay School of Commerce was established in the park but construction of additional buildings was soon curtailed for fear of encroachment on the park and its fragile wildlife. The buildings have remained to this day but only one still belongs to Solvay (and houses the Solvay Conference ). The building of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is also located in the park. The Library of Solvay is also located in the park and houses the think tanks Security & Defence Agenda, Friends of Europe and Maison d'Europe. A House of European History will also be housed by the Eastman building from 2014. The outstanding feature of the park is its pond, fed by the Maalbeek stream. Many rare trees (remnants of a botanic garden) and animals such as mallards, moorhens, coots, and even Egyptian geese and rose-ringed parakeets thrive in this urban environment.