The Egmont Palace (Dutch: Egmontpaleis, French: Palais d'Egmont) is a large mansion at the Wolstraat / Rue aux Laines and the Kleine Zavel / Petit Sablon Square in Brussels, Belgium. Today it houses the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1]
It was built between 1548 and 1560 by Françoise of Luxembourg and her son, Lamoral, Count of Egmont, first in Flemish Gothic style, later Renaissance. The fabric was dramatically transformed in the 18th century, when the building was clothed in classical style, while the property passed onto the Arenberg family. The plans for this stage are attributed to the early advocate of neoclassicism, Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni. After a fire demolished the oldest part of the building in 1891, it was reconstructed in a uniform classical style.
After the first World War the owner, the German Arenberg family, was forced to sell the building to the city of Brussels.
The venue hosted the fencing events for the 1920 Summer Olympics in the garden.[2]
In 1964 it was sold to the Belgian state.
Today, it is being used for receptions and meetings by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1977, the Egmont pact on the Belgian state reform was signed in the Egmont Palace during the second administration of Leo Tindemans.
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