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Greenhouses located in King of Laeken in Brussels.
During the 19th century, advances in building technology, and especially the use of metal and glass as building materials, making possible a new type of building the greenhouse.

In 1873, the architect Alphonse Balat designed for King Leopold II as a complex of greenhouses which completes the Château de Laeken, built in classical style. The complex has the appearance of a city of glass located in a hilly landscape. Flags monumental dome of glass, large galleries that cover the ground as covered streets are much more than an anecdote on the architectural applications of iron and glass or small greenhouse of exotic plants. What the royal greenhouses expressed concerns the architecture and, more specifically, a major construction program: the "ideal glass palace."


They are the result of many interviews, letters, sketches and projects exchanged between the architect Alphonse Balat and King Leopold II. More importantly, they point out that they have inspired the new Belgian architecture of this era and their influence has spread, with Art Nouveau in the world.

The current collection of plants of the Serres de Laeken has a triple value. First, some plants belonging to the plantation's original Leopold II still exist. On the other hand, the existing plantations still meet as a whole, the spirit that presided plantations of origin. Finally, Serres Royales still contain a lot of rare plants of great value.

Each spring, the greenhouses of Laeken are open to the public for about three weeks. This tradition, a century old, is still respected.