Dominating Monseigneur Ladeuzeplein, this imposingly grand Flemish Renaissance–style palace features a soaring Scandinavian-style brick tower topped with a three-storey octagonal stone cupola.
The library was convincingly rebuilt after WWI with the financial aid of 400 American universities, having been infamously put to the torch in August 1914 during the schrecklichkeit ('terror' or 'hard measures') of the German occupation. It was then rebuilt a second time after WWII. Tickets to access the library's impressive main reading room (occasionally closed) include a 10-point audio guide activated by somewhat hard-to-spot 'Podcatcher' points. Tickets often access additional changing exhibitions. The 300-step tower is worth climbing for the open-air balcony view, creaking clock room and 1928 seven-tonne Liberty Bell.
