DSC_0018 16When you drive down the monumental Tervurenlaan towards Tervuren you’ll find the Woluwe Park at the crossing with the Boulevard du Souverain. The park offers an enourmous diversity of landscapes and natural species. You can have a picnic in broad expanses of lawns, tucked away in intimate valleys, or watch some of the many species of migratory birds hiding in the humid meadows near the lakes. Maybe you prefer to get lost in the woods where, in spring, you are surrounded with flowercarpets of bluebells and wood anemones.

 

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In wintertime the steep slopes in the park attract many sleigh riders and from time to time even some snowboarders. The diversity in this beautiful park is very appealing and it contains not less than 180 species of trees, including some rare species.

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Although the slopes, hills and lakes all look quite natural this used to be a dull rather flat pasture untill king Leopold II was overlooking plans for the 1897 World Expo. Part of this expo took place at the current Jubelpark/parc cinquantenaire, part in Tervuren where the king planned a big Congo pavillion (nowadays The Afrika Museum) These two were connected by the Tervurenlaan and made way for new quarters for the Bourgeousie. Leopold II ordered to make a huge park to attract people to this part of the city. The French landscape architect Emile Lainé was in charge and changed the whole landscape. The huge amounts of sand digged out were used to construct the railway next to the park (now a lovely green walking and bike path). The works took 3 years and in 1899 the park was open to the public. In the 60’s they added some tennis courts and other sports infrastructure, that from the second half of this year will be finally open to the general public.

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If you want to discover this green heaven it’s best to take public transport. Take the line 1 metro towards Stockel and get off at Montgomery stop. There you take tram 44 Tervuren or 39 Ban-Eik and get of at the stops “Groene Hond/Chien Vert” or “Trammuseum/musée du tram” OR alternatively tram 94 from Louise to Trammuseum

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