Museum sights in Brussels
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Musée Magritte
A completely anonymous, suburban yellow-brick house: that's the façade of the Musée Magritte, and the façade that René Magritte, Belgium's most famous surrealist artist, showed the outside world. This museum in Jette occupies the house where Magritte and his wife Georgette lived from 1930 to 1954. Its appeal comes from its incredibly ordinary nature. It's odd to think the man responsible for some of the 20th century's most enduring images spent 24 years of his life in this bourgeois backstreet.
The museum opened in 1999 as the private initiative of a friend of the widow Magritte. With scandalously little support from the Belgian state, the curators assembled hundreds …
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Musée Royale de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire
One for military buffs, this museum houses an extensive array of weaponry, uniforms, vehicles, warships and documentation dating from the Middle Ages through to Belgian independence and the mid-20th century. There’s a panoramic view of the park’s triumphal arch (built in 1880), the Arcade du Cinquantenaire, from the top floor.
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Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique
This museum houses Belgium's premier collections of ancient and modern art and is particularly well endowed with works by Pieter Breugel the Elder, Rubens and the Belgian surrealists. Both sections are large and you'll need a good day here if you want to do them justice.
Highlights of the Museum of Ancient Art are paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries, including Flemish primitives, Hans Memling, Rogier Van der Weydan, Dirk Bouts, and a whole room dedicated to Hieronymus Bosch.
Rubens dominates the 17th- and 18th-century collection, including the magnificent Adoration of the Magi, although you'll also get to appreciate fantastic pieces by Brueghel the Elder and Anthon…
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Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika
Preserved insects, stuffed animals (including a huge elephant), masks, musical instruments, jewellery and a 22m-long pirogue (canoe) crafted by the Lengola people are among the mind-boggling displays at the extraordinary Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, housing the world’s largest collection of such artefacts outside Africa. Most artefacts were plundered during King Léopold II’s exploitation of the Congo in the 19th century, something that is, finally, being increasingly addressed through the museum’s displays. The on-site café serves African dishes, along with African beer, which you can walk off on the paths through the adjoining Park van Tervuren.
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Musée Horta
Although the exterior doesn’t give much away, inside, Victor Horta’s former home – which he designed and built between 1898 and 1901 and inhabited until 1919 – is an Art Nouveau jewel. Bathed in warm colours, the ground-floor living areas incorporate gleaming floor-to-ceiling tiling, while upstairs, you can see Horta’s personalised touches (such as the nifty plumbed urinal behind a cupboard in the bedroom) in the small, intimate rooms. The lower level offers an overview of his work, including the scale model of his magnificent Maison du Peuple before it met with the wrecking ball.
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Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée
Belgium’s national Comic Strip Centre is a studious look at the evolution of comics: how they’re made, seminal artists and their creations, and contemporary comic-strip artists. In truth, the admission price is steep for the rather limited displays – unless you’re an Art Nouveau aficionado, in which case it’s worth visiting to see Victor Horta’s 1906 light-filled glass-and-steel textile warehouse in which the museum is housed. Few interpretive signs are in English; ask to borrow an English-language booklet. There is also a comprehensive shop selling comics, and a pleasant café.
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Fondation Jacques Brel
Chansonnier Jacques Brel (1929–78) made his debut in 1952 at a cabaret in his native Belgium, and shot to fame in Paris, where he was a contemporary of Édith Piaf and co, though his songs continued to hark back to the bleak ‘flat land’ of his native country. This dedicated archive centre and museum, set up by his daughter, France (named for Brel’s adopted home), contains more than a hundred hours of footage and another hundred of audio recordings, as well as thousands of photographs and articles.
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Costume and Lace Museum
A stone's throw from the Grand Place, the Costume and Lace Museum is Belgium's second-best lace exhibition (top honours goes to the Nationaal Vlas, Kant en Linnenmuseum in Kortrijk). Notice the sombre black attire once worn by women en promenade (out walking in public) and the more colourful lace gowns for women en visite (visiting someone's home). Note also the antique underwear, including an old bustehouder (bra). Pick up the English-language booklet before setting off.
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Musée du Costume et de la Dentelle
Lace-making has been one of Flanders’ finest (and most eye-straining) crafts since the 16th century. While <em>kloskant</em> (bobbin lace) is believed to have originated in Bruges, <em>naaldkant</em> (needlepoint lace) developed in Italy but was predominantly made in Brussels. The Costume and Lace Museum reveals lace’s applications for under- and outerwear over the centuries, as well as displaying other luxury textiles such as embroidery. Ask for an English-language booklet.
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Brussels City Museum
The Brussels City Museum sits in the heart of the city opposite the City Hall in the Grand-Place. It provides a historical overview of the city through old maps, architectural relics, paintings and, displayed on the ground floor, Pieter Breugel the Elder's Cortège de Noces (Wedding Procession) of 1567. One room on the 3rd floor is devoted to the worldly wardrobe of Manneken Pis, though only a fraction of his 700-odd garments are displayed.
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Musée de la Ville de Bruxelles
No king actually ever lived in this Maison du Roi (King’s House), but in the folklore section of Brussels’ City Museum are 760-odd regal costumes – including an Elvis suit – belonging to Manneken Pis, whose official dresser cloaks him in these little outfits on special occasions. Other museum highlights include Pieter Breugel the Elder’s Cortège de Noces (Wedding Procession; 1567), along with maps and paintings tracing the history of the city.
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Musée des Instruments de Musique & Old England Building
Strap on a pair of headphones then step on the automated floor panels in front of the precious instruments (including world instruments and Adolphe Sax’s inventions) to hear them being played. As much of a highlight as the Musical Instrument Museum itself, is its premises – the Art Nouveau Old England building. This former department store was built in 1899 by Paul Saintenoy and has a panoramic rooftop café and outdoor terrace.
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Musée Constantin Meunier
The southern part of Ixelles is home to the intimate Musée Constantin Meunier. Constantin Meunier (1831-1905), a Brussels-born artist, is best known for his emotive sculptures fed by social realism. Larger-than-life bronzes depict working-class themes - muscular miners from Hainaut, dockworkers from Antwerp and men reaping fields. The museum occupies the town house where he lived and worked during his last years.
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Royal Museums of Fine Arts
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts combines the Musée d'Art Ancien, the adjoining Musée d'Art Moderne and the brand new Magritte Museum. All in all it's Belgium's premier collection of ancient and modern art, and is not to be missed. It's particularly well endowed with works by Pieter Breugel the Elder and Rubens, though Belgian surrealist René Magritte currently holds pride of place.
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Musée du Cacao et du Chocolat
Exhibits at Brussels’ museum of cocoa and chocolate give you a quick rundown of chocolate’s history in Europe, along with chocolate’s anti-aging and antidepressant properties. A couple of small treats along the way include a tasting at the praline-making demonstration. Better yet are the museum’s occasional one-hour praline-making courses – call for details.
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Musée de la Brasserie
Brussels’ brewery museum is authentic in the sense that it occupies the basement of the brewers’ guildhall and has some 18th-century brewing equipment. But visitors are often disappointed at its small size and the lack of any actual brewing taking place (though you do get a beer at the end).
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Musée BELvue
Inside this former royal residence, you can take a chronological audio-guided tour through Belgium’s history from independence to today, brought to life by exhibits and snippets of film footage. In summer, the on-site restaurant sets up tables in the charming garden.
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Musée des Sciences Naturelles
Colossal skeletons of iguanodon dinosaurs that roamed the land some 135 million years ago, found in a Belgian coal mine in 1878, are displayed in their 10m-high fossilised glory in this newly renovated and highly absorbing Museum of Natural Sciences.
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Autoworld
Prior to WWII, Belgium had a thriving auto industry and this coolest of car collections is its legacy. On display are some 400 vehicles (Model T Fords, Citroen 2CVs and much more, through to the 1970s), housed in a stunning 1880 steel structure.
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Musée des Enfants
Musée des Enfants is basically a big old mansion that's morphed into an indoor playground. Kids (aged three to nine) can paint, plant a garden, explore a space capsule, bake biscuits and more. It's very popular, particularly on wet days.
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Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire
Antiquities and artefacts from non-European civilisations are the highlights of the Royal Museums of Art and History (including sections set up for the visually impaired), contrasted by comprehensive coverage of European decorative arts.
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Scientastic Museum
Kids aged six and over may yet think science is fun after a couple of hours at this interactive museum, where they can make their voice mimic a duck, ‘fly’ using mirrors and enjoy other sensory pursuits. A winner for rainy days.
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Pavillon Chinois
The Pavillon Chinois is a Léopold II leftover, built after he saw similar at the 1890 Paris World Fair. It is a gloriously glittering affair and houses an extensive collection of Chinese porcelain.
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Ixelles Museum
The Ixelles Museum has a small but engaging collection of modern Belgian and French art. It covers most of the movements of the 19th and 20th centuries and features works by Magritte and Delvaux.
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Breugel House
There is a museum in this step-gabled house where Pieter Breugel the Elder lived and died, but it’s only open by reservation; phone ahead or check with the tourist office for details.
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