3-021-640 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Palace of Laeken, Brussels, the residence of the late King Leopold, 1865. '...a paved road and steep ascent leads us, through a straggling village, to the summit of a hill, where, in the midst of a well-timbered park, is the palace shown in our Engraving - Laeken, the residence of the King of the Belgians. This building, one of great architectural pretensions, was erected in 1782, under the Austrian Archduke Albert, and ran great risk of utter demolition during the vicissitudes that marked the last years of the eighteenth century. To preserve it from destruction Napoleon bought the estate in 1803 and, restoring and embellishing it, placed it at the disposal of Josephine. It was here that Napoleon conceived the idea, which he afterwards so disastrously realised, of the invasion of Russia. In 1815 it became the property of the Crown of the Netherlands; and since then the Dutch King William, and Leopold, King of the Belgians, have considerably enlarged it...In our Engraving the Duchess of Brabant, now Queen of the Belgians, is seen driving the toy-phaeton which, with its pair of little ponies no larger than Newfoundland dogs, was lately presented to her by her brother, the Archduke Stephen'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.