It was Victor Hugo, the great French poet and novelist, who said, ‘Brussels possesses two unique wonders of the world, its Grand-Place and the panorama of the Jardin Botanique’. Utterly deranged town planning has ensured that Brussels only has one unique wonder left. Opened in 1829, the year before Belgian independence, the iconic botanical gardens were for a while some of the most famous buildings in the country.
The gardens stand on a hillside that in 1829 was almost in open countryside near the village of Schaerbeek. The main building, the beautiful wrought iron and glass orangery, is elevated above the formal gardens opposite a large circular fountain. Throughout the gardens are attractive statues portraying the seasons and African animals. It is a fabulous place and a much needed green space, but time and urban development have not been kind.
The roar of traffic that accompanies any walk through the gardens gives a pretty big hint of what happened here. As the city encroached on the gardens the government took the fateful decision to relocate their entire botanical collection and several buildings out of Brussels. This became the National Botanic Garden of Belgium in the village of Meise, just over the border in Flanders. The Jardin Botanique was left without purpose.
Dire consequences followed. In the 1940s a big chunk of the gardens were destroyed to create what became the inner ring road. Several lanes of near constant road traffic now drive over formerly landscaped grounds. In a city of terrible roads, the ring road is the worst. They even allowed Boulevard Saint-Lazare to be built through the middle of the park. It cuts the gardens in half as it descends into Gare du Nord’s seedy red light district.
The silver lining is that since 1979 Le Botanique, as it is known, has been run as a cultural centre for the French speaking community in Brussels. It has recently reopened after an extensive renovation. I walk through the park a few times a week on my way to the office. I lament its fate every single time, and curse the utter lack of vision that failed to see the opportunity to turn this absolute gem into the Brussels version of Madrid’s Retiro Park.
Having learned of Le Botanique’s history, we felt an obligation to visit its nemesis in Meise. I tried not to like it, but in truth Meise’s botanical gardens are a delight. No roar of traffic here, or buildings messing up the vista, just acre upon acre of landscaped grounds, woodland and flower gardens surrounding a lake in which the 17th century Château de Bouchout is reflected.
The outdoor gardens are home to over 8,000 species, and a stroll through them is a real pleasure. But it is the vast tropical greenhouses that host over 12,000 species of plant that are the real showstopper at Meise. We arrived on a hot and sticky summer’s day, it threatened thunderstorms that didn’t materialise. This must have been a relief to the two or three wedding parties that were wandering around the gardens.
We arrived not long before lunchtime and headed towards the orangery, which is a former orangery but also a cafe with a lovely terrace overlooking a lake. It’s a beautiful location so we ordered an overpriced croque monsieur and a bottle of Meise tripel beer. Afterwards we continued around the park to a rose garden which, when roses are in season, must be pretty amazing.
Eventually we found our way to the spectacular wrought iron and glass greenhouses. They are massive and really well presented. As well as having quite a few plants, there are good information boards to give you details of the climatic zones and the plants that grow in them. We stopped by the castle and the lake, which has a 400-metre meandering walkway across the water. It’s great.
Dating from the 12th century, the castle has a lot of history. King Leopold II bought it for his sister, Charlotte, in 1879. She was the widow of Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the Emperor of Mexico in that country’s ill fated brush with monarchy. After he was killed by firing squad in 1867, the ‘Empress’ lived in the castle until her death in 1927. She went insane here. A decade later, it became the centrepiece of the new botanical gardens.
Meise has been a world renowned centre of excellence for research for many years now, one reason for that is its herbarium of about 4 million specimens. I had no idea what a herbarium was before visiting, but it’s a collection of preserved (for which read dried) plant specimens used for research. Anyone who ever put a plant or flower in a book and left if to flatten and dry was in possession of a mini herbarium.
Botanical gardens seem to belong to a different era, something from the past that, in many European countries at least, have unfortunate associations with colonisation. The place where exotic flora was brought for the people of Imperial power to ogle over. Meise though, was a fascinating place and a great way to spend half a day enjoying a botanical paradise on the doorstep of Brussels.
Don’t know what happened. Looks like I un-suscribed, then re-suscribed… WP engineers are driving me mad… 😉
Don’t know Meise. Sometimes on another trip. “Le botanique” still retains a certain charm…
all well Paul?
It’s a beautiful place, really, but with some vision it could have been such a great addition to the centre of Brussels. All well, thanks Brian. Looking forward to spring!