Leopold Park

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The pond with the European Parliament building in the background

Leopold Park (in French: Parc Léopold, in Dutch: Leopoldspark) is a public park in central Brussels adjacent to the Paul-Henri Spaak building, the seat of the European Parliament.

The 10-hectare (25-acre) park was open to the public in 1880 after an unpopular zoo was removed. During the following years, a campus for the famous Solvay School of Commerce was established in the park but construction of additional buildings was soon curtailed for fear of encroachment on the park and its fragile wildlife. The buildings have remained to this day but only one still belongs to Solvay (and houses the Solvay Conference).

The Library of Solvay is also located in the park and houses the think tanks Security and Defence Agenda, Friends of Europe and Maison d'Europe.

The park's outstanding feature is its pond, fed by the Maalbeek stream. Many rare trees (remnants of a botanic garden) and animals such as mallards, moorhens, coots, and even Egyptian geese and rose-ringed parakeets thrive in this urban environment.