Belgium’s ornate Royal Palace, normally closed to the public, will be open to visitors for a month, starting July 23, after Belgium’s National Day holiday, through August 28.
Tours will visit historic rooms, including the Empire Room in the oldest part of the palace and the Marble Room, with its swaths of green marble and portraits of nobles on horseback. The palace is both the official residence and main workplace of the King and Queen.
In addition to the tours, there are three special exhibitions on display. The first, “Ensuring the Future,” highlights the work of the Belgian Science Policy Office in research and projects including global warming. Another traces the four-decade reign of King Baudouin, the country’s long-serving post-war monarch.
But for many of the younger crowd, the real draw will be the third exhibition. Lego’s craft will be honored in “Science, Just a Stone’s Throw Away,” where technology educator Technopolis, will show how assembling LEGO blocks can become a real artistic discipline, with a chance to explore 3D constructions of cities that are good for their inhabitants, economy and planet.
