UK monuments to remain in Mini-Europe

You can stop holding your breath: Management at Mini-Europe in Brussels have decided to retain the attraction’s UK monuments.

Mini-Europe – in case you didn’t know – is a miniature park, home to little scale models of monuments and famous sites from around Europe. The open-air attraction is incredibly popular with tourists.

As the models represent monuments from EU countries – there is the Eiffel Tower, for instance, and the Acropolis – management had to consider whether to remove all the monuments representing the UK.

Would Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Dover Castle and a number of other British novelties on view disappear due to the country no longer being a member of the EU? The answer is no. Owner Thierry Meeùs has decided they can all stay.

“The buildings are lovely, and there are a lot of them,” Meeùs told Bruzz. “If we took them away, it would leave such a gap.”

When Mini-Europe is seen from above, the monuments match up with their countries on a map of Europe. “So you can’t just reserve the UK spot for Serbia or another candidate member state,” explained Meeùs.

Brexit isn’t being ignored, however. There will be a red dotted line in front of the UK’s spot as well as a new miniature – a customs house. “This will make it clear that the UK is no longer part of the EU but is a former member state,” said Meeùs.

Mini-Europe in fact has to put quite a lot of work into adjusting its documentation. All the info panels that mention the 28 member states must be altered, as well as educational materials offered to schools and the visitor’s guide – in 11 languages. “We’ll use up the old ones first and put in an insert,” explains Meeùs. “In June, we will debut our post-Brexit guides.”

Mini-Europe is currently closed for the winter and re-opens on 13 March.

Photo: UK Parliament and Big Ben at Mini-Europe
©Netha Hussain/Wikipedia