Europa Building
A glass lantern floating above a 1920s Art Deco shell — this is where EU heads of state actually vote.
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Philippe Samyn's contemporary addition crowns the preserved facade of the Résidence Palace, a luxury apartment block whose foundation stone was laid in 1923. The same building was requisitioned as Nazi headquarters in 1940 and then handed to SHAEF in September 1944. That compressed history sits quietly on Rue de la Loi while the EU Council meets inside.
What to look for
- The multi-storey lantern-shaped structure housing the main meeting rooms — its silhouette is the official emblem of both the European Council and the Council of the EU
- The Art Deco facade of the original Résidence Palace, listed since 2004, sitting flush against the glass-and-steel contemporary wing
- Two skyways spanning the gap to the adjacent Justus Lipsius building
On Rue de la Loi in Brussels' European Quarter; the full exterior, including the lantern and skyways, is visible from the street.
Europa Building 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."