Mont des Arts

The Mont des Arts features a formal garden terraced into a steep slope between the city's upper and lower neighborhoods. King Leopold the Second envisioned this site as a grand connection between the royal palace and the working district below. During the nineteen fifties, planners leveled an entire historic residential neighborhood to clear the view for this expansive stone staircase and garden. When the final concrete was poured, the residents who lived here for generations had long since been forced out for the project.