Follow us on our social networks!

The Atomium


The Atomium is a landmark building in Brussels, originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair (Expo 58).

It stands 102 m (335 ft) tall. Its nine 18 m (60 ft) diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected, so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Tubes with a diameter of 3 m (10 ft) connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They contain stairs, escalators and a lift (in the central vertical tube) to allow access to the five habitable spheres, which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere houses a restaurant with a panoramic view of Brussels.

“Chez Léon” could hardly miss an opportunity to display one of the most hilarious pages in the history of Belgian comics: a copy of a page from Album 0 in which Gaston copies his face on each of the Atomium’s spheres, grumbling to himself “I shouldn’t have agreed to do this… really I shouldn’t.”

Articles similaires

Eddy Merckx

9 August 2021

Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (born 17 June 1945), better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is widely seen as the... View Article

Read more

Manneken-Pis

9 August 2021

Manneken-Pis,  ”little man pee” in Dutch, is a landmark small bronze sculpture (61 cm) in Brussels, depicting a naked male child urinating into the basin of a fountain. It was... View Article

Read more

Jean-Michel Folon

9 August 2021

Jean-Michel Folon 1934-2005), was a Belgian watercolourist, painter, engraver and sculptor. During a friendly lunch with Rudy Vanlancker at “110”, he offered to draw the invitation to the opening of... View Article

Read more