Earlier this month, I visited the city of Brussels, and one of the items on the agenda was to visit the Atomium and the site of the 1958 Expo. The Atomium has become one of the symbols of the city of Brussels, and it was built for the 1958 World Exhibition. The Expo was a huge event that included various countries coming together to showcase innovations in science and technology. After the Expo, the Atomium was due to be torn down, but it remained and was renovated in 2004 and 2006 for visitors and attracts over 600,000 per year.
I visited the exhibition site on my first full day and got up early to visit. The sky was very cloudy, but some sun tried to shine through. The site is located a short train twenty-minute ride from the centre of Brussels.
Outside the train station at Heysel are the exhibition grounds. Actually, two Expos were held here. There was one in 1935, and the second was in 1958, soon after the second World War and near the beginning of Cold War tensions. The above building is an Art Deco exhibition centre built for the 1935 Expo. Grounds were also built and sculptured and illuminated at night with fireworks displays.
As I arrived early and before the Expo opened, I first had a look around. As mentioned above, grounds (next to the Atomium) were created and landscaped in 1934 for the 1935 exhibition, and I visited them. Jules Buyssens was the inspector of parks and grounds and promenades in Brussels, and he developed the Parc d'Osseghem. The grounds include forest, which is steep in places due to its former use as a quarry. This was incorporated into English-style gardens with curves and viewpoints to encourage painting.
The grounds also includes an open-air theatre. This open-air theatre had excellent acoustics for orchestras and performances that took place in 1935 and 1958. It also hosts a jazz festival. The cylindrical beech trees are one of the park's features.
The 1958 exhibition site covers over 200 hectacres and divided into sveral areas of pavilions, squares, palaces, fountains, gardens, and statues. New architecture designs and materials were experimented with to create the buildings. Most of those buildings are torn down, but Atomium is one of the structures that remains.
Atomium was built to showcase the iron and steel European community founded in the 1950s, but aluminium was used instead. The structure itself was designd like an atom, and the material and form were combined to create the name of the structure "atomium". The structure became an icon. It was a symbol of hope to popularize atomic energy. It was the centrepiece of the exhibition centre in 1958.
After wandering around the gardens, I got to the Atomium and took my trip up via th elevator to the top. The elevator takes guests up to the top orb. This is the viewing area, and there's also a restaurant at the top. There is a wonderful view over Brussels, though the Atomium is a few miles outside of the centre of Brussels.
Here are some facts of the Atomium structure: The structure includes 9 spheres, and it is 102m tall. The elevator in the middle of the structure shoots up to the top in five meters per second.
I visited the restaurant and had a cocktail and enjoyed the view. I enjoyed the view, and I was the only one in the restaurant during my visit. It had a late-1950s feel about it. The cocktail was a special one for winter, and it was delicious. It was called "Winter Fell Atomium" and includd Curacao, amaretto, cocnut puree, basil, and lemon.
After the restaurant, I continued to admire the 360 degree view. One of the attractions that I wanted to see was Mini Europe, but it was closed for the winter. I could see some of it from above. I will have to visit it some other time.
I took a photograph of the park that I visited earlier.
Once I had seen the view, I got the elevator back down to the ground level and was then shown the way to the museum. This was located up some stairs and then to other orbs connected by stairways and escalators. The first part of the exhibition contained information about the Atomium structure and 1958 Expo.
It included some drawings of the structure, a map of the 1958 exhibition, branding materials and advertising worldwide, and information about the running of the Expo or World's Fair.
There was also a model of the structure.
The other parts of the museum included various artistic light shows. The next escalator brought me to the next orb with different light colours and patterns with a soundscape. There were various rooms with lights too.
The last light room included a relaxing soundscape with benches.
The exit back down to the ground floor includd another light show in the escalator with audio sounds from space and astronauts.
I enjoyed my visit to the Atomium. I would book it in advance and arrive early in the day to make the most of it. Entrance to the structure also gives free access to the Design Museum, located a short walk away.
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