Cinquantenaire

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The Cinquantenaire Arch in winter

Cinquantenaire (French) or Jubelpark (Dutch) is an urban public park in Brussels, Belgium.

It is located to the east of Brussels' EU district.

The park is dominated by the triple arch in the middle of the park. The Royal Museum of Art and History, the Royal Army and Military History Museum and Autoworld are all located near the arch. They surround the park esplanade, which is sometimes used for diverse purposes, such as military parades and drive-in movies in the summer.

The Brussels Mosque can also be found in Cinquantenaire. Every year, the 20 km of Brussels, a run with 25,000 runners, is started in the park.

The N3 main road and line 1 of the Brussels Metro pass underneath the park. The nearest metro stations are Schuman, to the west of the park, and Merode, immediately to the east.

[edit] History

The Dog sculpture in the snow

Originally it was part of the military exercising ground outside of the center of the city, the so-called "Linthout" plains. For the world exhibition of 1880, the plain was converted to an exhibition center. The original pavillons of the exhibition have now mainly been replaced with the Arch and the large halls on both sides of the arch, leaving only the glass constructed Bordiau halls as a memento of 1880.

The Arch was planned for the world exhibition of 1880 and was meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the independence of Belgium. In 1880, only the bases of the columns had been constructed and during the exhibition the rest of the arch was completed with wooden panels. During the following years, the completion of the monument was the topic of a continuous battle between king Leopold II and the Belgian government, who did not want to spend so much money on it. The monument was finally completed by way of private funding in 1905, just in time for the 75th anniversary of the Belgian independence.