Atomium
Friday, 17th February 2006 by Alex Turnbull
This is the incredible Atomium in Brussels, Belgium. It is (if you hadn't already guessed...) a 103-metre-tall representation of "a unit cell of an iron crystal" magnified 165 billion times. This thing is huge - it's 16 metres taller than the Flatiron!
Atomium was built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair (Expo '58), but has been closed since October 2004 for much-needed renovations. However... if you happen to be in Brussels this weekend then you're in luck, as Atomium re-opens to the public tomorrow!
Thanks to Navarro, Pieter, roelens marnix, Bodega, Michel, Manu Navarro and Philippe Gautier.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
The buildings that can be found immediately nortwest of the Atomium compose one of the largest movie theater complexes in Europe, the Kinepolis, with 25 different screens, including an IMAX.
thats just ridiculous.
I went there once when touring around Europe… when I went to the Atomium the whole complex seemed abandoned, and there was a guy in a chicken suit standing at the bottom of the structure. No one else was around, and he was just staring at me. It was perhaps the single most surreal experience of my life.
ROFL! that must have been weird.
The intricate garden-like-plot to the immediate west is “MINI EUROPA”, which is full of model versions of all major European landmarks – Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa… even the Channel Tunnel!
As said before , the Atomium bas build for Expo’58 and was not ment to last longer than the expo duration… But after the expo , it was decided not to demolish it… Almost 50 years after , it is still standing and is now shiny again after complete renovation. 6 of the 9 balls are already open to the public , the restaurant in the top ball will open next month.
As PhilippeP said, it was build only for few months in 1958. All balls are completely renewed, and equiped with a very nice LED system.
The renewal was financed by an association of Atomium lovers which gather all the necessary money from private companies, generous donators and government.
It’s really a weird building, and the inside lift has a glass rooftop, it takes only a few seconds to go in the higher ball.
Ha, I smoked a hash joint with two belgian guys and an irish guy right below the lower left atom. Lots of dove poo there.
If your interested, here’s a night view from ground level.
http://www.royburroughs.com/dpp_ap_scenic10.htm
I have put a nice map of the Expo 58 on Google Earth. You can see how big the World Fair was, and which countries were participating. Have a look: http://belgeoblog.wordpress.com/2006/05/09/bezoek-de-expo-58
I have a funny to this pic: on a flight from the UK to Germany I had a discussion with my wife about where we were. Just then we saw that picture (or maybe it was a bit smaller!) from the plane, so we knew immedeately: we’re above Brussels! 🙂
Thx for that pic. Whimp
LOL @dutchguy’s reply
I just listed a small atomium statue on ebay & I found this site while researching the item.
I went to Brussels a couple of weeks ago and one of the things we went to was the Atomium.
We left the Brussels Metro Station to be confronted by this amazing structure. As you enter the complex, you are guided into the elevator that ascends the central beam at 5 meters per second (the fastest in Europe when Expo ’58 was around) to step out onto the panoramic sphere, which is equipped with these amazing screens that you can tilt and the view on the screens move as you tilt them. They also tell you about the landmarks you can see around. In this sphere, there is also a wonderful gourmet restaurant. They charge for the privilege, though. Back down in the elevator, and up an escalator to a little museum about Expo ’58, and this continues on another level. Then you go up the first tube which is quite steep to see more about the history of Belgium. A short climb up another tube takes you to a cafe without windows. In this sphere there is another tube downwards which is closed to the public but when it was first opened was used, because there were stairs. When I was there, there was a rather unsettling creaking noise coming from the bottom of the tube! A water and €3 later, we went back downwards. I am rather scared of heights, so needless to say, I was a bit nervous at the time, and I was feeling ill, so I don’t think I paid an awful lot of attention to the Expo ’58 area, but the panorama bit was excellent and well planned. Well worth a visit.