Laeken Cemetery, Protected cemetery in Laeken, Belgium

Laeken Cemetery is the oldest Brussels cemetery still in use, grown around the choir of the old Church of Our Lady, of which only the Saint Barbara chapel remains. Its 2.46 hectares hold 19th-century funerary monuments by sculptors such as Carrier-Belleuse and Ernest Salu, plus underground galleries entered through a 1930 Art Deco columbarium by François Malfait. A bronze cast of Rodin's The Thinker stands on the grave of art dealer Joseph Dillen.

The cemetery grew around the medieval Church of Our Lady in the village of Laeken. The first extension in 1832 doubled its area to about 1.3 hectares, and after Queen Louise-Marie was buried there in 1850 it was enlarged to 2.46 hectares. In the 1870s, alderman Émile Bockstael ordered a network of underground burial galleries, the first 31-metre gallery opening in 1878. The old Gothic church was largely demolished in 1904, leaving only the Saint Barbara chapel.

The grounds house an original bronze cast of Rodin's The Thinker, placed as a memorial by collector Josef Dillen in 1927. This sculpture draws visitors who come to admire the artistic works scattered throughout the cemetery.

The cemetery lies beside the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, with the oldest graves around the surviving choir of the old church. The underground galleries, closed in 2011 for safety, reopened in 2017 after restoration. The Salu workshop next to the entrance is now a private house and museum of funerary art.

The grave chapel of stonemason Léonce Evrard holds a stone heart pierced by a sunburst, known as the Sun Heart. The cemetery also contains a bronze cast of Rodin's The Thinker on the grave of art dealer Joseph Dillen, and the tombs of about 125 Belgian soldiers from both world wars.