Maalbeek metro station

Now walk under the Rue de la Loi overpass. Rue de la Loi is the arterial road of the Leopold Quarter, linking the Petite Ceinture ring road with Avenue de Tervueren. Rue de la Loi crosses not just Chaussée d’Etterbeek here, but the Maalbeek, which was canalised in the second half of the 19th century and disappeared underground. In 1969, Maalbeek metro station was part of the first Brussels ‘premetro’ or underground tram. In 1976 it became a stop on the first Brussels metro line. The fact that Brussels first acquired premetro and metro lines in the European Quarter, and only later on in the densely populated working-class districts, says a lot about the lengths the city has always gone to in order to attract the European institutions to Brussels. As well as the metro, Rue de la Loi also acquired an underground car park that extends for much of its length. This car park reflects a vision of mobility that helps explain why the car remains so dominant in this part of Brussels. If you look into the entrance to the metro station, you can see the artwork by Benoît van Innis referring to the terrorist attack of 2016. He painted an olive tree on white ceramic tiles, accompanied by a quotation from the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.

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