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.”