1958 World's Fair
| EXPO Brussels 1958 | |
|---|---|
The Philips Pavilion
|
|
| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Universal exposition |
| Category | First category General Exposition |
| Name | Expo 58 |
| Area | 2 square kilometres (490 acres) |
| Visitors | 41,454,412 |
| Participant(s) | |
| Countries | 44 |
| Location | |
| Country | Belgium |
| City | Brussels |
| Venue | Heysel |
| Coordinates | 50°53′50″N 4°20′21″E / 50.89722°N 4.33917°E |
| Timeline | |
| Bidding | 7 May 1948 |
| Awarded | November 1953 |
| Opening | 17 April 1958 |
| Closure | 19 October 1958 |
| Universal expositions | |
| Previous | Exposition internationale du bicentenaire de Port-au-Prince in Port-au-Prince |
| Next | Century 21 Exposition in Seattle |
| Specialized Expositions | |
| Previous | Interbau in Berlin |
| Next | Expo 61 in Turin |
| Horticultural expositions | |
| Next | Floriade 1960 in Rotterdam |
Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair (Dutch: Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling, French: Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles), was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958. It was the first major World's Fair after World War II.
Nearly 15,000 workers spent three years building the 2 km2 (490 acres) site on the Heysel plateau, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) northwest of central Brussels, Belgium. Many of the buildings were re-used from the Brussels International Exposition of 1935, which had been held on the same site.
Every 25 years starting in 1855, Belgium had staged large national events to celebrate its national independence following the Belgian Revolution of 1830. However, the Belgian government under prime minister Achille Van Acker decided to forego celebrations in 1955 to have additional funding for the 1958 Expo.
Expo 58 was the 11th World's Fair hosted by Belgium, and the fifth in Brussels, following the fairs in 1888, 1897, 1910 and 1935. Since Expo 58, Belgium has not arranged any more world fairs.
The site is best known for the Atomium, a giant model of a unit cell of an iron crystal (each sphere representing an atom). More than 41 million visitors visited the site, which was opened with a call for world peace and social and economic progress, issued by King Baudouin I.
Notable exhibitions include the Philips Pavilion, where "Poème électronique", commissioned specifically for the location, was played back from 425 loudspeakers, placed at specific points as designed by Iannis Xenakis, and Le Corbusier.
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