Atomium

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  • Address
    Heysel, Blvd du Centenaire, N of Brussels, 1020
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  • Phone
    02 474 89 77
  • Website
  • Transport
    underground rail: Heysel

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Lonely Planet review

The Atomium is a space-age leftover from the 1958 World Fair. It was built by the powerful Belgian metal industry as a model of an iron molecule - enlarged 165 billion times. The 102m-high steel structure consists of nine balls linked by columns. When approached from central Brussels, it looms over houses in the nearby suburbs like an alien from a '60s Hollywood movie.

Originally destined for demolition post-1958, it became a symbol of postwar progress and is now a city icon. Recent renovation saw it closed for a couple of years, but it reopened in 2006 with shiny new stainless steel spheres and updated displays inside. To get there head for Heysel metro station or, more scenically, take tram 81.