Established 1887 | Architect Victor Jamaer | |
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Location Grand Place
B-1000 Brussels Website www.museedelavilledebruxelles.be Architectural style Gothic Revival architecture Similar King’s House, Museum of cacao and chocolate, Brussels Town Hall, Jeanneke Pis, Charlier Museum | ||
The Museum of the City of Brussels (French: Musée de la ville de Bruxelles, Dutch: Museum van de Stad Brussel) is a museum on the Grand Place square in Brussels, Belgium. It is dedicated to the history and folklore of the town of Brussels, its development from its beginnings to today, which it presents through paintings, sculptures, tapistries, engravings, photos and models, including a notable scale-representation of the town during the Middle Ages.
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Highlights
The museum features artifacts, paintings and tapestries from Brussels' history. There are two dioramas of the city of Brussels in its early days and as it began to flourish in the 1500s.
One room presents the nearly 750 costumes of the Manneken Pis statue. The Museum is open Tuesday – Sunday from 10am to 5pm.
History
Conceived in 1860 and inaugurated in 1887, the museum is situated on the Grand Place opposite the Brussels Town Hall, in a building known as the Maison du Roi ("King's House") or Broodhuis ("Bread hall"). The building is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the rest of the square.
The Brussels Town Hall was built on the south side of the Grand Place in stages between 1401 and 1455, and made the Grand Place the seat of municipal power. To counter this symbol of municipal power, from 1504 to 1536 the Duke of Brabant built a large building across from the city hall as symbol of ducal power. It was built on the site of the first cloth and bread markets, which were no longer in use, and it became known as the King's House (Middle Dutch: 's Conincxhuys), although no king has ever lived there. It is currently known as the Maison du roi (King's House) in French, though in Dutch it continues to be called the Broodhuis (Breadhall), after the market whose place it took. The building was reconstructed by Victor Jamaer in 1868. It had previously been rebuilt after the bombardment of Brussels by French troops in 1695.