Royal Palace of Brussels
palace in Brussels, Belgium
The Royal Palace of Brussels (French: Palais royal de Bruxelles [palɛ ʁwajal də bʁysɛl]; Dutch: Koninklijk Paleis van Brussel [ˈkoːnɪŋklək paːˈlɛis fɑm ˈbrʏsəl]; German: Königlicher Palast von Brüssel [ˈkøːnɪklɪçɐ paˈlast fɔn ˈbʁʏsl̩]) is the official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the centre of the nation's capital, Brussels. However, it is not used as a royal residence, as the king and his family live in the Royal Palace of Laeken in northern Brussels. The website of the Belgian Monarchy describes the function of the Royal Palace as follows: The Royal Palace is where His Majesty the King exercises his prerogatives as Head of State, grants audiences and deals with affairs of state. Apart from the offices of the King and the Queen, the Royal Palace houses the services of the Grand Marshal of the Court, the King's Head of Cabinet, the Head of the King's Military Household and the Intendant of the King's Civil List. The Royal Palace also includes the State Rooms where large receptions are held, as well as the apartments provided for foreign Heads of State during official visits.
The first nucleus of the present-day building dates from the end of the 18th century. However, the grounds on which the Royal Palace stands were once part of the Palace of Coudenberg, a very old palatial complex that dated back to the Middle Ages. The existing façade was only built after 1900 on the initiative of King Leopold II.
The Royal Palace is situated in front of Brussels Park, from which it is separated by a long square called the Place des Palais/Paleizenplein.
History
Palace of Coudenberg
The first building on the Coudenberg hill was constructed between the second half of the 11th and first half of the 12th century. At that time, it probably looked like a fortified castle forming a part of the city's fortifications.
“Royal Palace of Brussels” enters the record as palace in Brussels, Belgium. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Royal, Palace and Brussels can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q635307. VIAF identifies the subject as 124164177. The Library of Congress control number is n86034648. Authority coordinates are 50.842, 4.362. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1900.
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This entry incorporates text from “Royal Palace of Brussels” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.