Atomium

What makes it special

The frame is a cube standing on one corner, the shape of an iron crystal, and each of its nine spheres is one atom of the crystal's unit cell.

The tubes between the spheres are wide enough to hold an escalator, and the longest escalator runs 35 metres. Sound and light displays play inside the tubes as you ride.

The Atomium was built as the emblem of the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Its spheres were first clad in aluminium, which a renovation finished in 2006 replaced with stainless steel, chosen because it resists corrosion better.

More than half of the route is given over to exhibitions on digital art. The permanent exhibition retraces more than six decades of the history of the World's Fair in Brussels, with vintage photographs and scale models.

When the panorama is open, its windows look out over Brussels in every direction.

Visiting

Buy your ticket at the ticket office, then join a second queue at the Atomium's own entrance. Inside, the visit comes in two parts, and both start and finish on the ground floor.

The first part is the panorama: a lift runs from the ground floor to the upper sphere, 92 metres up, and brings you back down. While the panorama is closed, the visit is the second part alone.

That part climbs through four spheres on escalators and stairs, with the exhibitions at the intermediate levels. It ends back on the ground floor, where you leave.

Guided or on your own

Guided tours run only on request. Book at least three weeks ahead by email to the Atomium's groups and guided tours desk, booking@atomium.be; confirmation depends on a guide being free.

Tours are given in English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Italian, with the last start at 4.30pm. The guide takes you from the ground floor up to the panorama, when it is open, and then through the open spheres, with commentary on the building's construction and renovation and on the exhibitions.

Tips

Your ticket is good for one entry only, and any exit is final, so finish both parts of the visit before you step outside. The same ticket covers the Design Museum Brussels, 150 metres away, on the same date.

Window glass reflects the room and anyone standing behind you, which makes photographs tricky. Some sections get crowded at the escalators and at the windows, so expect to wait your turn there.

The Atomium Restaurant, in the highest sphere, takes reservations, and it books up. A table there does not include the exhibitions, and you need no Atomium ticket to eat.