Royal Observatory of Brussels. This building was located in the Sint-Joost-Ten-Node area of Brussels, Belgium. The observatory was founded by Royal Decree in 1826 when Belgium was still part of the Netherlands. Work on this building began in 1827, and the first director of the observatory, from 1828, was the Belgian astronomer Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet (1796-1874). In 1839, following the Belgian Revolution of 1831, King Leopold I established the institution as the Royal Observatory of Brussels. This photograph was taken in 1881. Nine years later, in 1890 and 1891, the Royal Observatory of Brussels was moved to the Ukkel area of Brussels and renamed the Royal Observatory of Belgium.