Did you know that one of Brussels’ oldest parks was recently reopened to the public?
The Walckiers park in Schaerbeek, one of the oldest parks in Brussels, has been reopened to the public after decades of it being closed.
Four and a half hectares of eighteenth-century botany at a stone’s throw of Schaerbeek station lay abandoned since 1965. It was one of the first English-style parks in Europe (the same style as, for example, the Bois de la Cambre and the Park of Woluwe).
Now it’s been restored to its former glory, visitors can bask in this green area that bridges Schaerbeek and Evere, but only in half of it: the other half is reserved for the local fauna to protect nature. Blink twice and you might miss the local ferrets that have been parading there for the past twelve years. Don’t try to spot them at night: the park will have a closing time to protect the precious ecosystem and the animals that call it home.
The park was considered the last missing link in the Green Walk, a 60-kilometre loop around Brussels where you can walk or cycle to your heart’s content, a trail that was constructed over time and now, with the opening of the Walckiers park for the first time in decades, the loop has finally come full circle, if you’ll allow us.