The palace was built from 1778 to 1783 to a neoclassical design by the French architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard and includes sculptures by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle.

Under Austrian rule, it housed the Sovereign Council of Brabant before being used as a courthouse during the French period.

During the Dutch period, it was one of two homes of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the other being in The Hague.

The initial building, which was then called the Palace of the Council of Brabant (French: Palais du Conseil du Brabant),[4] was built between 1778 and 1783, during the time of the Austrian Netherlands, to the plans of the French architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard.

[2] The central body of the building was transformed in 1816–1818 by the architect Charles Vander Straeten [fr] to house the States General established by King William I of the Netherlands.