Mini-Europe

Mini-Europe is a miniature park located in Bruparck, at the foot of the Atomium, in Brussels, Belgium. Mini-Europe has reproductions of monuments in the European Union on display, at a scale of 1:25. Roughly 80 cities and 350 buildings are represented.[1] Mini-Europe receives 350,000 visitors per year and has a turnover of €4 million.

Mini-Europe

Location	Brussels, Belgium
Coordinates	50.894°N 4.339°E / 50.894; 4.339
Opened	1989
Operating season	March–October
Website	www.minieurope.eu

The park contains live action models such as trains, mills, an erupting Mount Vesuvius, and cable cars. A guide gives the details on all the monuments. At the end of the visit, the Spirit of Europe exhibition gives an interactive overview of the European Union in the form of multimedia games.

The park is built on an area of 24,000 m² (300,000 sq ft). The initial investment was of €10 million in 1989, on its inauguration by then-Prince Philip of Belgium.

Exhibits

Building the monuments

Site from the Atomium

The monuments exposed are chosen for the quality of their architecture or their European symbolism. Most of the monuments were made using moulds. The final copy used to be cast from epoxy resin, but nowadays polyester is used. Three of the monuments were made out of stone (e.g. the tower of Pisa, in marble). A computer-assisted milling procedure was used for two of the models. After painting, the monuments are installed on site, together with decorations and lighting.

Many of the monuments were financed by European countries or regions. The Brussels Grand Place model cost €350,000 to make. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela required more than 24,000 hours of work.

Gardens

Ground cover plants, dwarf trees, bonsais and grafted trees are used alongside miniature monuments, and the paths are adorned with bushes and flowers.

List of models

Grand Place (Brussels)

Houses of Parliament (London)

Arc de Triomphe and Sacré Cœur (Paris)

Eiffel Tower (Paris)

Brandenburg Gate (Berlin)

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral (Santiago de Compostela)

Maestranza (Seville)

Mogoșoaia Palace (Mogoșoaia)

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Austria Melk Abbey Belgium Grand Place / City Hall, Brussels The Belfry, Bruges Town Hall, Leuven Castle of Vêves, Celles Citadel and Notre-Dame Church, Dinant Berlaymont building, Brussels Graslei street and the Rabot, Ghent Alden Biesen Castle, Rijkhoven Main square of Antwerp (City Hall, Brabo statue, guild houses) Curtius House, Liège Bulgaria Rila Monastery, Rila Mountain, part of UNESCO World Heritage Croatia St. Mark's Church, Zagreb Cyprus Ancient Greek theatre, Kourion Czech Republic Prague Orloj Denmark Viking ring fort Nyhavn waterfront, Copenhagen Børsen (old stock exchange), Copenhagen Estonia Great Coastal Gate and Fat Margaret Tower, Tallinn Finland St. Olaf's Castle, Savonlinna France Eiffel Tower, Paris Arc de Triomphe, Paris Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, Paris Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp Clos Vougeot, near Dijon Château de Chenonceau, Loire Valley Royal Saltworks, Arc-et-Senans Germany Speyer Cathedral Eltz Castle Holstentor, Burgtor and Salzspeicher, Lübeck Brandenburg Gate and Berlin Wall, Berlin Bonngasse (street) with Beethoven's birth house, Bonn Wies Pilgrimage Church Porta Nigra, Trier Osthofentor, Soest Jahrtausendturm, Magdeburg Greece Acropolis, Athens Traditional village, Santorini Hungary Széchenyi Bath Ireland Glendalough monastery, County Wicklow Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary Gallarus Oratory, County Kerry Italy Piazza dei Miracoli (Leaning Tower, Duomo, Baptistry), Pisa Trevi Fountain, Rome Doge's Palace and St Mark's Campanile, Venice Palazzo Pubblico, Siena Villa Capra (La Rotonda), Vicenza Trulli of Alberobello Mount Vesuvius

Latvia Freedom Monument, Riga Lithuania Vilnius University campus, Vilnius Luxembourg Adolphe Bridge, Luxembourg City Malta Mnajdra temple Netherlands Mint Tower and Montelbaan Tower, Amsterdam Town Hall, Maastricht Hoensbroek Castle, Hoensbroek Church and houses, Ootmarsum Abbey and Kloveniersdoelen, Middelburg Museum village of Orvelte Weigh House and Tax Tower, Alkmaar Windmills, Kinderdijk Hoofdtoren and Oude Doelenkade street, Hoorn Town Hall, Veere Poland Artus Court, Gdańsk Monument to Fallen Shipyard Workers, Gdańsk Portugal Belém Tower, Lisbon Castle of Guimarães Ribeira, Porto Traditional village of the Algarve Oceanarium, Lisbon Romania Mogoșoaia Palace, near Bucharest Slovakia The Blue Church in Bratislava Slovenia Prešeren Square with Tromostovje in Ljubljana Spain Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela El Escorial Plaza de Toros, Seville Christopher Columbus monument, Barcelona Landscape with windmills, La Mancha Sweden City Hall, Stockholm United Kingdom Houses of Parliament / Big Ben, London Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birth house, Anne Hathaway's cottage, etc.) Longleat House, Wiltshire Royal Crescent and Circus, Bath Dover Castle Arlington Row, Bibury Other Ariane 5 Pride of Dover ferry An airport A Ferris wheel A North Sea oil platform TGV train Calypso (Jacques Cousteau's ship)

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See also

• Madurodam — Model village in Netherlands containing miniature famous Dutch landmarks
• Catalunya en Miniatura — miniature park located 17 km away from Barcelona, with an exhibition area of 35.000 m2 including all major buildings of Catalonia and of Antoni Gaudí
• Italia in miniatura — miniature park near Rimini
• Bekonscot — typical English village in miniature
• Huis ten Bosch — Japanese theme park modelled on the cities and landscape of the Low Countries
• Minimundus miniature park in Klagenfurt, Austria.

External links

• Mini-Europe official website
• Mini-Europe in Brussels
• Koshy, Yohann (27 April 2016). "These Photos of a Crumbling Pro-EU Theme Park Show a Europe in Existential Crisis". Vice. Retrieved 29 April 2016.

References

1. "Description - Mini europe". Mini europe. Retrieved 2017-11-04.