A brief history of the China House
The French architect Alexandre Marcel was responsible for this unexpected building in the landscape surrounding the Royal Palace of Laeken (Brussels).
Originally designed for the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, the China House was installed with the neighboring Japanese tower on the outskirts of the royal estate of Laeken on the initiative of King Leopold II, to testify to the good relations between Belgium, China and Japan.
© Fonds Mercator
Work began in 1903 and was completed in 1910, one year after the death of King Leopold II. Designed by Parisian decorators, including Georges-Louis Claude, and inaugurated in 1913, the Chinese Palace was initially intended to be a luxury restaurant, but instead housed a permanent exhibition promoting trade with the Far East. However, it was closed during the First World War and then, along with the Japanese Tower, came under the supervision of the Science and Arts Department of the Royal Museum of Art and History. Together, the two buildings became the Museums of the Far East in Belgium. For many years, visitors to the Chinese Palace were able to admire beautiful collections of precious objects bequeathed to the Belgian State by private collectors.
The exterior and interior of the palace, as well as the annexes and carved woodwork on the façades made in Shanghai, were completely restored in the early 1990s by the Buildings Agency, under the supervision of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (IRPA), according to the principle of restoring rather than replacing the original elements.
Unfortunately, despite this restoration, the Chinese Palace and Japanese Tower were closed in 2013 due to safety and stability concerns. Since then, they have been closed to the public and these remarkable buildings have continued to deteriorate, despite the fact that, on the initiative of the Brussels-Capital Region, a procedure for their classification was approved in 2019.
In January 2025, the Belgian Federal Government’s Council of Ministers approved the creation of a non-profit organisation responsible for revitalising the building, under the name ASBL Palais chinois et des Pays des Routes de la Soie. After the restoration of the Chinese Palace and its annex, the building will once again be open to the public and will host cultural and artistic activities.
The Oriental Dream: Leopold II's Japanese Tower and Chinese Pavilion at Laeken (Brussels)
by Chantal Kozyreff
In 2001, art historian and curator at the Art and History Museum Chantal Kozyreff published a book entitled The Oriental Dream: Leopold II’s Japanese Tower and Chinese Pavilion at Laeken, published by Editions Fonds Mercator. Available in three languages (French, Dutch and English), this book recounted the history of these extraordinary buildings. With the collaboration of Natascha Langerman, Denis Laurent and Geneviève Defrance, Chantal Kozyreff produced a 177-page, beautifully illustrated and thoroughly researched text. Unfortunately, the book is now out of print, but Chantal Kozyreff offers us here a summarised and updated version covering the period up to the creation of the non-profit organisation Palais chinois et des Pays des Routes de la Soie. We would like to express our warmest thanks to her!
© Fonds Mercator
Unique features
of the China House
The China House is representative of a widespread fashion in Europe at the end of the 19th century for "chinoiserie" and "folies", which makes it historically and culturally very unique.
There are no other Chinese buildings of this quality and from this period in Europe, making Belgium the home of an exceptional heritage gem.
The quality and diversity of the styles and interior décor of the China House, as well as the quality of its main annex (former stables), whose spaces are spread over three levels, make it possible to organise high-level cultural activities and events there. These possibilities for using the annexes of the China House (kiosk and former stables) for cultural activities or events add a major asset to its operation. Once restored, the main annex will be made available to the private and institutional partners of the non-profit organisation China House and the Silk Roads Countries.
Symbolically, the palace represents the richness of exchanges between Asia and the West, as evidenced by certain details of its architecture and interior decoration, where elements of the Louis XV, Louis XVI, Empire and Art Nouveau styles blend with those characteristic of Chinese, Japanese and Indian architectural and craft traditions.
The China House's location, on the edge of the royal estate of Laeken and close to major tourist attractions (Heysel, Atomium, Laeken greenhouses, etc.), offers significant potential for attracting tourists and generating visitor numbers.
Although no longer institutional, the links between the China House and the Royal Museum of Art and History make it possible to consider the conservation and public display of part of its Far Eastern collections on the site, as was the case before its closure in 2013.
The park surrounding the China House, whose plantings date back to the building's construction, offers visitors the opportunity to stroll and relax in a setting that is beautifully maintained by Brussels Environment.
© Alexander D’Hiet
What future
for the China House?
It was unacceptable to leave the China House in such a state of neglect. But in order to bring it back to life, it was essential to give it a new, sustainable and high-quality purpose that took into account its architectural and cultural specificities and its heritage status.
Given the lack of financial resources allocated by the institutions responsible for the maintenance of the China House and its public activities, a non-profit organisation now guarantees it a bright future. The creation of this non-profit organisation was approved by the Belgian Federal Government’s Council of Ministers in January 2025.