Brussels is the city to be for art lovers that are visiting Belgium. There is a digestible choice of museums worth visiting, when around for a short break in Brussels. As your hosts at thePANTONE HOTELTM Brussels, we’d like to provide you with a short list of museums visiting. All museums can be reached easily from our hotel close to Avenue Louise.
Visiting museums in Brussels does require a bit of prepping up. The reason behind this is that it’s not always easy to find your way around in the web of Brussels museums. Brussels has different groups of museums that you’ll be able to find under multiple names or individual descriptions.
Some of the museum groups, on top, are divided over multiple locations which make it tricky to comprehend where you’re supposed to be heading. Especially when searching online, you might run into some confusing information.
We made you a tiny selection of museums that we think are definitely worth exploring. For our selection we also attempt to find you a path through the labyrinth.
1. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts were founded more than 2 centuries ago, and consist of a group of museums on different locations. The collection combined contains a stunning twenty thousand paintings, sculptures and drawings. The treasures of the museums include works by Bosch, Bruegel, Cranach, Memling, Jordaens, Rubens, Delveaux and Magritte.
1.1 The Museum of Ancient Art
Here you’ll find a large collection of sculptures and paintings from the 15th through the 18th century. Our personal favorite: the wing dedicated to Felmish old masters.
Address: 3 Rue de la Régence, 1000 Brussels (you can purchase your tickets here, the entrance is at Place Royale 1)
Tel: 02 508 32 11
Open: Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00-17:00
1.2 The Museum of Modern Art
This museum is dedicated to artists of the 19th and 20th century. The museum is currently closed and will reopen in November 2012.
Address: 3 Rue de la Régence, 1000 Brussels (you can purchase your tickets here, entrance is at Place Royale 1)
Tel: 02 508 32 11
Open: Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00-17:00
1.3 The Antoine Wiertz Museum
Antoine Wiertz was a highly spectcular artist and often painted on huge canvasses where drama, terror and size played an important role.
Location: Rue Vautier 62, 1050 Brussels
Tel: 02 648 17 18
Open: weekends from 10:00-12:00 and 13:00-17:00
1.4 The Constantin Meunier Museum
Meunier had a love for paintings and sculptures. This museum is the place where the artist spent the last years of his life and contains more than 700 works of art.
Location: Rue de l’Abbaye 59, 1050 Brussels
Tel: 02 648 44 99
Open: infrequent weekends, call to arrange a special visit
2. Magritte museums
Again here there is a bit of space for confusion. There are 2 Magritte museums in Brussels dedicated to this famous artist.
The first Magritte museum (website: click here) is located at Place Royale 1. Indeed, at the exact same address as the museum of modern art. Online you won’t be abe to find out easily that these museums are located at the same spot. Tickets also need to be purchased separately. Hint: combined tickets are cheaper.
The collection is a beautiful sample of René Magritte’s oeuvre and covers all periods from his life. Here you’ll find his most important masterpieces.
Then there’s the second Magritte museum (website: click here). Renee Magritte lived here for 24 years of his life. This museum offers a biographical description of his life. TA visit of this will give you a very intimate impression of the life of Magritte.
Location: Rue Esseghem 135
These 2 museums truly compliment each other, so if you’re a fan of Magritte’s modern surrealist art, you should go and see both.
3. Musee du Cinquantenaire
Once more, this museum is part of a group, being the Royal Museums of Art and History
Musee du Cinquantenaire offers an overview of the history of mankind in the five continents from prehistoric times until today. This large museum includes high quality exhibitions and archaeological pieces from prehistory to the Middle Ages. The South American exposition holds our preference, which you shouldn’t miss.
Location: Parc du Cinquantenaire 10
Enjoy the museum trip!