The National Basilica of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic Minor Basilica and parish church in Brussels. The church was dedicated to the Sacred Heart, inspired by the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in Paris. Symbolically King Leopold II laid the first stone of the basilica in 1905 during the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence. The construction was halted by the two World Wars and wasn't finished until 1969. Belonging to the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Mechelen-Brussels, it is the sixth largest Roman Catholic church by area in the world.