The Atomium, a symbolic 103-metre-tall (338 ft) modernist structure, originally built for Expo 58, is the most impressive monument on the Heysel Plateau and is now considered a landmark of Brussels.

This church, whose origins date back to the 8th century, was located nearby, as was the Chapel of St. Anna with its miraculous spring, which attracted many pilgrims.

During the Ancien Régime, the Heysel Plateau was still largely owned by the Affligem fathers, and the area belonged to the parish of Laeken.

The Osseghem farm grew into a small village, which, in the 18th century, also included a Speelhuys, a pavilion where the Archbishop of Mechelen stayed when visiting Brussels.

The Villa Van der Borght was built in 1885 at the bottom of what is now the Boulevard du Centenaire/Eeuwfeestlaan, which was not yet laid out (the building will be razed in 1956), followed by the Church of St. Lambert around 1890.

Upon ascending to the throne, in 1865, King Leopold II was concerned with the construction of a memorial to his father in the perspective of the Royal Palace of Laeken.

Laeken Park was gradually developed between 1876 and 1880 based on plans by the German landscape architect Édouard Keilig, associated with the civil engineer Louis Van Schoubroeck.

Since the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark had become too cramped, Brussels' authorities wished to develop the Heysel into a new exhibition and conference location of international stature for the Belgian capital.

The Centenary Palace complex (French: Palais du Centenaire, Dutch: Eeuwfeestpaleis) was designed by the architect Joseph Van Neck to house the 1935 World's Fair.

It consists of nine steel spheres connected by tubes, and forms a model of an iron crystal (specifically, a unit cell), magnified 165 billion times.

It now has twelve halls, linked together by covered galleries, and currently occupies 22 ha (54 acres) of land, making it the most important event complex in the city and the largest exhibition space in the Benelux.

In January 2009, the Commission's then-spokeswoman Valerie Rampi confirmed that the EU executive was considering several proposals for a new location, with some 100,000 m2 (1,100,000 sq ft) of office space.

[14] According to the draft project, the Heysel was to host a new branch of the European School, where EU officials educate their children in their native tongues.

This was made true in 2012 with the European School, Brussels IV's move from Forest to its purpose built campus on the plateau.

The European Quarter would have remained the centre of the Commission's activities, but the body was also looking for "additional poles outside" this central area, in order to exert a downward pressure on real estate prices, according to Siim Kallas, the EU's then-Commissioner for Administrative Affairs.