The Royal Palace of Brussels sits at the top of the Place des Palais, its white neoclassical facade looking out over the Royal Park as if surveying everything it once ruled. It has been the official seat of the Belgian monarchy since the 1830s, when a newly independent Belgium needed a king and ended up with Leopold, a German prince, who duly obliged.

The royals themselves moved out long ago, settling instead in Laeken Palace on the city's northern edge. The Palace today serves its ceremonial purpose: official receptions, state events, and one month each summer when the public is allowed inside. Belgian artist Jan Fabre once covered an entire ceiling here with iridescent beetle wings.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the Palace as a starting point to trace Brussels' unlikely rise from medieval trading hub to the diplomatic capital of the world, connecting the monarchy's origins to the European institutions that now define the city.