Church of Our Lady of Laeken
Built to bury a queen — every Belgian monarch since Leopold I lies in the crypt beneath your feet.
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Leopold I commissioned Joseph Poelaert — later architect of Brussels' Law Courts — to design this neo-Gothic church as a memorial and mausoleum for Queen Louise-Marie, who died in 1850. The Royal Crypt below the nave remains the principal burial site of the Belgian royal family, making this one of the few active parish churches in Europe where royal history is literally underfoot.
What to look for
- The three-spire neo-Gothic façade — the result of a 1853 jury decision to scrap Poelaert's original single-spire brick design for something far grander
- The crowned Marian image inside the shrine, which received a formal pontifical coronation performed by Cardinal van Roey on 17 May 1936
- The Royal Crypt entrance below the main shrine, the resting place of Belgian royals, with a separate cemetery nearby where notable artisans are also interred
The church is in the Laeken district of Brussels, directly beside the Palace of Laeken — still the Belgian royal residence — so pair both in a single trip.
Church of Our Lady of Laeken is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Brussels, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Brussels pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Brussels
- Manneken PisA 55.5 cm bronze boy that somehow became the face of an entire country — the joke is entirely intentional.
- Grand-PlaceEvery guildhall surrounding you was rebuilt from rubble — French artillery levelled the square in 1695, and the Town Hall tower survived only because it was the gunners' aiming point.
- AtomiumNine stainless-steel spheres arranged as an iron crystal blown up 165 billion times — built to headline a World's Fair and never taken down.
- Stoclet PalaceA UNESCO World Heritage house you can only see from the pavement — by design, and by the owner's choice.
- King Baudouin StadiumInaugurated for Belgium's 100th birthday in 1930, this 70,000-seat bowl on the Heysel Plateau hosted six European finals — and the night football changed forever.
- Cathedral of St. Michael and St. GudulaBelgium's national church began as a chapel on a trade-route crossroads in the 9th century — eleven centuries of building decisions are now stacked on a hill called "Mount of Sorrow."