30 Vintage Photographs of the Expo 58 in Brussels ~ Vintage Everyday

Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, was a world’s fair held on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Belgium, from April 17 to October 19, 1958. It was the first major world’s fair registered under the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) after World War II.

Expo 58 was the eleventh world’s fair hosted by Belgium, and the fifth in Brussels, following the fairs in 1888, 1897, 1910 and 1935. In 1953, Belgium won the bid for the next world’s fair, winning out over other European capitals such as Paris and London.

Nearly 15,000 workers spent three years building the 2 km2 (490 acres) site on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau, 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) north-west of central Brussels. Many of the buildings were re-used from the 1935 World’s Fair, which had been held on the same site.

The theme of Expo 58 was “Bilan du monde, pour un monde plus humain” (Evaluation of the world for a more humane world), a motto inspired by faith in technical and scientific progress, as well as post-war debates over the ethical use of atomic power.

The exhibition attracted some 41.5 million visitors, making Expo 58 the second largest World’s Fair after the 1900 Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris, which attracted 48 million visitors. Since Expo 58, Belgium has not organized any more world’s fairs.

These vintage photographs were taken by Allan Hailstone that show the Expo 58 in Brussels, Belgium in 1958.