Great Mosque of Brussels

Infobox religious building
building_name=Great Mosque of Brussels


caption=
location=Flagicon|BEL Brussels, Belgium
geo=coord|50|50|36|N|4|23|16|E|display=inline,title|type:landmark_region:BE
religious_affiliation=Islam
district=City of Brussels
functional_status=Active
leadership=
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architecture_type=
architecture_style=Arabic
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year_completed=1879 (original building)
1978 (transformation)
construction_cost=
specifications=
architect=Ernest Van Humbeek
Tunisian Boubaker
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materials=The Great Mosque of Brussels located in the Cinquantenaire Park is the oldest mosque in the Brussels. It is also the seat of the "Islamic and Cultural Centre of Belgium".

The original building was built by architect Ernest Van Humbeek in an Arabic style, to form the East Pavilion of the National Exhibition in Brussels in 1880. The pavilion housed then a monumental fresco: “Panorama of Cairo” which won a major success. However, the lack of maintenance in the twentieth century caused the building to deteriorate gradually.

In 1967, King Baudouin fact that the building at King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia, on an official visit to Belgium, to turn it into a place of worship, the use of the Muslim community of Belgium which becomes important at this time. The mosque, after a long reconstruction done at the expense of Saudi Arabia by architect Tunisian Boubaker, is inaugurated in 1978 in the presence of Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz and Baudouin.

Today, it also hosts a school and an Islamic research center whose objectives are to know the Muslim faith. The centre also provides courses of Arabic to adults and children, as well as initiations to Islam.

ee also

* Cinquantenaire