Palace of the Marquess of Assche, City palace in the Leopold Quarter, Brussels, Belgium

The Palace of the Marquess of Assche is an Italian neo-Renaissance townhouse at 33 Rue de la Science, facing Square Frère-Orban. Alphonse Balat modelled it on Rome's Palazzo Farnese. A long gallery ran along one side of the garden, and inside were a grand staircase, ceiling paintings by Charles Chaplin in the salon (1862) and a monumental ballroom with a balcony above the entrance for a small chamber orchestra.

The estate was commissioned in 1856 by nobleman Theodore van der Noot and designed by architect Alphonse Balat, with completion in 1858. Later it was converted to an administrative building and has served as headquarters for the Belgian Council of State since 1948.

The ballroom had a balcony above the entrance where a small chamber orchestra could play. Two modern tapestries were made for the Council of State in 1952: the Walloon Provinces by Rodolphe Strebelle and the Flemish Provinces by Stan Van Vlasselaer.

The palace faces the Frère-Orban square at 33 Rue de la Science, next to the former Loewenstein mansion at number 35, also used by the Council of State since 1995. The building is not open to visitors, so the neo-Renaissance facade and its setting in the Leopold Quarter are seen from the street.

The residence briefly housed Belgium's crown prince and princess before they ascended to the throne, representing an often overlooked chapter of its occupancy history. Those years between 1901 and 1909 connected Belgium's future monarchs to this Brussels address.