User:Camille Polet/sandbox

Woluwe Park is a park in Brussels (Belgium), located in the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.

Its surface area is between 63 and 69 hectares, flanked by Boulevard de Souverain and Avenue de Tervueren. It is extended in Woluwe Saint-Pierre by Parmentier Park and Mellaerts Pond, and in Auderghem by Luxor Park and the domain of Val Duchesse.

History
In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Mesdaelbosch (Mesdael Wood) was shown on the Ferraris map (1771). The Mesdaelbosch was then shared by the Jericho convents in Brussels and Valduchesse Priory in Auderghem. Its northern side was bordered by Linthout Wood. Joseph II and the French regime suppressed these religious orders and their estates were subdivided and sold.

In 1863, what is now Woluwe Park was all that remained of the Mesdaelbosch. Parts of the Mesdaelbosch were used as a farming area during the interwar period.

The Mesdaelbosch was cut through by a valley, part of which was called Duyveldelle (Devil's Dell), which opened near Auderghem, in the lower part of what is now the Avenue des Traquets. The Devil's Bridge is still known today and runs underneath Avenue Vander Swaelmen.

In 1877, construction began on the Brussels-Tervueren railway, which would later delimit the Mesdael woods along the Woluwe valley.

The creation of Woluwe Park is linked to the organization of the Brussels International Exposition of 1897. That year, the layout of Avenue de Tervueren, linking the two exhibition sites, was ended. Leopold II wanted to create an enormous park along the new avenue to make it more attractive and appealing to the bourgeoisie of the time. In 1896, the plans of the French landscape architect Elie Lainé were used to start the three-year-long construction of Woluwe Park.

In mid-1901 construction began on Boulevard du Souverain, which was completed in 1910.

In 1909, the park was part of the Royal Donation to the Belgian State.

After the First World War, the park was refurbished. The first sporting activities were organized in 1920. A sports complex was later created, with sports facilities in the upper part of the Plaine des Sports dating back to the 1960s.

The site was listed in 1972 and is now managed by the Green Spaces Department of Brussels Environment.

A road runs through the full length of the park: Avenue du Parc, which in 1917 became Avenue du Parc de Woluwe. It starts on Avenue de Tervueren and ends in Auderghem where it used to pass under a narrow railway bridge to reach Boulevard du Souverain.