Royal Crypt of Laeken

The Royal Crypt located in the Notre-Dame de Laeken church is the burial place of all reigning Belgian Sovereigns and their wives, as well as some members of the Belgian Royal Family.

 Queen Louise-Marie, wife of King Leopold I, had expressed the wish to be buried in Laeken. After the death of the Queen in 1850, a competition was organized for the construction of a church. It was the architect Joseph Poelaert who won it. The new church is a neo-Gothic building with, behind the choir, a Royal Chapel and a Crypt. The church was commissioned in 1872, but it was not completed until 1907. In 1904, the old communal church was demolished. Only the Gothic choir remained spared. It is in the cemetery, next to the current church.