Atomium

The Atomium stands on the Heysel plateau in Laeken, in the north of Brussels. It was built as the centrepiece of the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, Expo 58, and was designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn with the architects André and Jean Polak to celebrate scientific progress at the start of the atomic age.

The structure was meant to stand for only six months, but its popularity kept it in place after the fair closed. Its name blends the words atom and aluminium, the material that originally covered the spheres. A renovation from 2004 to 2006 replaced the faded aluminium panels with stainless steel at a cost of about 26 million euros.

The Atomium is 102 metres high and consists of nine steel spheres, each 18 metres across, arranged in the shape of the unit cell of an iron crystal magnified about 165 billion times. Six of the spheres are open to visitors and are linked by tubes containing escalators, one of them among the longest in Europe when it was built. A central lift rises to the top sphere, which has a viewing level and a restaurant overlooking Brussels. The lower spheres hold a permanent exhibition about Expo 58 and temporary exhibitions on design and architecture.

With more than 600,000 visitors a year, the Atomium is the most visited attraction in Brussels. For years Belgian copyright rules limited commercial use of its image, until a 2016 freedom of panorama law allowed photographs of it to be shared freely.

Tickets cost €17 for adults, €15 for seniors and €9 for students and children over 115 cm; smaller children enter free. A combined ticket with the neighbouring Mini-Europe park costs €35 for adults. Tickets are currently sold only at the ticket office on site, and the top sphere, Panorama, has been temporarily closed, so check the official website before you go. The nearest metro station is Heysel on line 6, about five minutes on foot. Queues for the lift can be long at weekends and in school holidays.

The ticket is valid between 10 am and 5.30 pm on the chosen day. Waits at the ticket office can stretch from 45 minutes to two hours at busy times, so arriving at opening time on a weekday saves the most time.

The Atomium sits in a cluster of attractions on the Heysel plateau. Mini-Europe, with scale models of European landmarks, is at its foot, and the King Baudouin Stadium and the Brussels Expo halls are a few minutes away. The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, open to the public for a few weeks each spring, are a short drive east. For photographs, the lawns of the Atomium square give the full structure in one frame.