Editing Heysel Plateau (section)

===19th-century urbanisation===
[[File:Laeken (Bruxelles). Institut d'économie ménagère agricole d'Hosseghem 02.jpg|thumb|Former Institute of Agricultural Home Economics of Osseghem]]

At the end of the 19th century, the Heysel still had a distinctly rural character,{{sfn|Chotin|c. 1859|p=133}} although there were already plans to develop it into a new urban area. In 1850, the [[Federal Government of Belgium|Belgian Government]] authorised the construction of a new [[Church of Our Lady of Laeken]], intended to replace the medieval building (destroyed except for its [[Choir (architecture)|choir]], which is still visible in the [[Laeken Cemetery|cemetery]] adjacent to the current church). [[Leopold I of Belgium|King Leopold I]] himself laid the first stone in 1854, although the new church, much larger than the old one, was not completed until 1909.{{sfn|State|2004|p=218}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Church of Our Lady of Laeken |url=http://www.laeken.brussels/en/locations/church-of-our-lady-of-laeken// |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=Laeken.Brussels |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1869, a school was inaugurated in the hamlet, probably on the {{lang|fr|Rue du Heysel|italic=no}}/{{lang|nl|Heizelstraat|italic=no}}. The Rue du Heysel itself was attested in an official document in 1875, and stretched between the {{lang|fr|Ancienne chaussée de Meysse|italic=no}}/{{lang|nl|Oude Meisesesteenweg|italic=no}} and the {{lang|fr|Rue de la Cave|italic=no}}/{{lang|nl|Kelderstraat|italic=no}} (today's {{lang|fr|Rue Émile Wauters|italic=no}}/{{lang|nl|Emile Wautersstraat|italic=no}}). The Villa Van der Borght was built in 1885 at the bottom of what is now the {{lang|fr|Boulevard du Centenaire|italic=no}}/{{lang|nl|Eeuwfeestlaan|italic=no}}, which was not yet laid out (the building will be razed in 1956), followed by the Church of St. Lambert around 1890.

Upon ascending to the throne, in 1865, [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold II]] was concerned with the construction of a memorial to his father in the perspective of the Royal Palace of Laeken. The development of a surrounding public park was approved in 1867. [[Laeken Park]] was gradually developed between 1876 and 1880 based on plans by the German [[landscape architect]] Édouard Keilig, associated with the civil engineer Louis Van Schoubroeck. The park and the monument were completed in 1880, in time for the 50th anniversary of [[Belgian Revolution|Belgian independence]]. The king acquired more land on the Heysel in 1899. Plans to enlarge the Royal Palace lead to the demolition of the [[barracks]] located on its right flank, where a detachment of [[grenadier]]s, responsible since 1840 for the surveillance of the royal palaces, had been stationed. A new barracks was constructed between 1899 and 1902, in a Flemish [[Renaissance Revival architecture|neo-Renaissance]] style, according to the plans of the architect Jules-Jacques Van Ysendyck.{{sfn|Van der Elst|2003}} The buildings are now made available by Belgium for the [[European School, Brussels IV]]. In 1905, the 75th anniversary of the country's independence was celebrated with great fanfare, among others in Laeken Park. Later, the Institute of Agricultural Home Economics, a girls' school for agriculture and domestic science, was also set up in Osseghem.