Национальная базилика Святого Сердца в Брюсселе

Basilica in Brussels, Belgium
other Basilicas of the same name

The National Basilica of the Sacred Heart (; Nationale Basiliek van het Heilig Hart) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and parish church in Brussels, Belgium. It is dedicated to the Sacred Heart, inspired by the Basilique du Sacré Coeur in Paris. Symbolically, King Leopold II laid the first stone in 1905 during the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence. The construction was halted by the two World Wars and finished only in 1970. Belonging to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mechelen–Brussels, it is one of the largest churches by area in the world. Located at the head of Elisabeth Park atop the Koekelberg hill, between the municipalities of Koekelberg and Ganshoren, the church is popularly known as the Koekelberg Basilica (; link=no). The massive brick and reinforced concrete structure, in Art Deco style of neo Byzantine inspiration, features two thinner towers and a nearly as high green copper dome that rises above ground, dominating Brussels' north western skyline. On a clear day, the basilica can be recognised with the naked eye from dozens of kilometres away outside Brussels.

In the mid 19th century, King Leopold I dreamed of turning the uninhabited Koekelberg hill in north western Brussels into a royal residence area. After his death, his son, King Leopold II, envisaged building a Belgian Panthéon dedicated to Great Belgians there, inspired by the French Panthéon in Paris, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence. The king dropped this project due to the lack of enthusiasm of the Belgian population. It is nonetheless still attested today by the two large avenues—the Avenue des Gloires Nationales/Landsroemlaan and the Avenue du Panthéon/Pantheonlaan—that adjoin the site. In 1902, Leopold II visited the Basilique du Sacré Coeur of Paris, and inspired by it, decided to build a pilgrimage church back home, a national sanctuary dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While he saw the opportunity to build his national Panthéon at the Namur Gate in Ixelles, Leopold II accepted that the land of Koekelberg be ceded by the Compagnie immobilière de Belgique to the Catholic Church with a view to building instead the national basilica there. The deed of donation of the of land was signed on 12 December and confirmed on 31 December through a royal decree.

The initial project of the Leuven based architect Pierre Langerock was a sumptuous neo Gothic basilica inspired by the "ideal cathedral" of the French architectural theorist Eugène Viollet le Duc. Langerock envisaged an edifice bristling with six towers of a hundred metres or more, the highest of which would have culminated at above the crossing. Leopold II laid the first stone on 12 October 1905 during the celebrations commemorating the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence. The foundation works started in 1909, but the project was delayed due to the king's death on 17 December 1909. Financing the basilica's construction also soon became a problem, so only the foundations had been finished when World War I broke out. In his pastoral letter for Christmas 1914, Cardinal Mercier gave the basilica a new meaning:
Quote|As soon as Peace shines on our country, we will rebuild on our ruins, and we hope to put the crowning touch on this work of reconstruction by building, on the heights of the capital of free and catholic Belgium, the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The adaptation and extension of the existing foundations were undertaken from January 1926, and the building the apse began in August 1930.

The basilica, on the Koekelberg hill, is a landmark on the Brussels skyline. The cupola's platform offers an excellent panoramic view of Brussels and the wider region of Flemish Brabant. Visitors can reach the platform either by stairs or by two elevators commissioned in the spring of 2012, in the form of a cage and two fully glazed cabins.