Museum of Fine Arts Belgium. L

Everyone has heard about the famous Manneken Pis fountain, but not everyone knows that the people of Brussels went further and installed the Manneken Pis fountain near the oldest Delirium pub, and a little later, the Pissing Dog. In general, their imagination knows no bounds. What else is there to see in Brussels? All answers in our guide. Brussels is known to the world for its Gothic-style palaces, well-preserved ancient narrow streets, spacious squares, unusual sculptures and monuments. Let's talk about the most interesting sights of Brussels.

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The Royal Palace - the residence of many ruling families, is located on some elevation above the city, in the Brussels Park. It is currently used for official ceremonies and is open to the public daily. Deserve special attention: Throne Room, Mirror Room, Imperial Room. In each of the listed interior halls, the visitor will see expensive luxurious decoration, French style and elegant design.

The Bellevue Museum is located in the Royal Palace, there is a collection of artifacts, documents, antiques related to the period of the formation of the Belgian state. The entrance to the Royal Palace is free for everyone, the entrance fee to the museum: for adults - 5 euros, for pensioners, upon presentation of a pension certificate - 4 euros, students pay 3 euros, children - free of charge.

The Palace of Charles of Lorraine has a tragic history; at the end of the eighteenth century it was barbarously plundered by the invaders, so not many rooms have been preserved in their original form. When visiting the palace complex, you should pay attention to the staircase in the hall, at the base of which stands a sculpture of Hercules.

It has been preserved since the construction of the building. Furniture, household items and musical instruments from the 18th century are in good condition. Visiting days: Wednesday and Friday from 13:00 to 17:00. The entrance ticket for an adult is 3 euros, for children admission is free.

The real cultural center of Brussels is the Palace of Fine Arts, built at the beginning of the 20th century. When designing the palace, it was decided to mix the styles of neoclassicism and modernity, later this style was called art deco. Henri le Bouffa is a hall in the Palace of Fine Arts, characterized by good acoustics. It often organizes performances by world-class opera stars, symphony and philharmonic concerts. In addition, the palace has become a venue for performances by dance groups and theater troupes.

In order to get to the palace, use the first metro line, stop "Gare Centrale & Parc" or the bus that runs through the central area of the city, stop "Central Railway Station".

Diverse Brussels can be explored for a long time, but the best idea of it will develop only when a person gets acquainted with the main religious buildings of the city.

The main church symbol of Brussels is the Cathedral of St. Michael and Gudula, which is located on some hill, between the old and new areas of Brussels. The execution style is mixed - there are elements of gothic and romanticism, which attracts the tourist's eye. Time of construction - XI century. The facade of the building was recently restored, while the interior decoration has been preserved almost unchanged.

The internal dimensions of the premises amaze the imagination of a person - tens of meters separate the floor from the vaulted ceilings, the range is complemented by large-scale columns and life-size sculptures. The cathedral is decorated with stained glass paintings depicting fragments of the life of monks and great saints. In addition to visiting the cathedral, everyone can listen to an organ music concert, which is arranged for parishioners on Sundays.

The opening hours of the cathedral for visitors: weekdays - from 7 am to 6 pm, weekends - from 8 am to 6 pm.

Basilica of the Sacré Coeur

The Sacré-Coeur Basilica is the main symbol of Belgian independence, was built in honor of the 75th anniversary of the independence of the state. Considered a must visit place. Location: Elizabeth Park. The building reaches a height of ninety meters, due to which it is considered the largest building in the world, made in the art deco style. Two thousand people can fit inside the basilica at the same time. Today, the Sacré Coeur Basilica is used not only as a place for religious services, but also for concerts and exhibitions. Part of the basilica is reserved for a museum and a lecture hall.

Church of Notre-Dame de Laeken

History lovers should visit the Notre Dame de Laeken church, which is located in the suburbs of Brussels. The period of construction of the religious building is the second half of the nineteenth century. The church contains a crypt - the burial place of five rulers of the Belgian state - Leopold the first, second and third, Albert the first and Budewijn. The opening of the crypt, according to tradition, is held on the days of great church holidays.

You can get acquainted with the painting and sculpture of the period of the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries in the Catholic Church of Notre Dame du Finistere, which is geographically located in the central part of Brussels. Part of the church is made in the classical style, the other - in the Baroque style.

Beer Museum

Belgium is set to the whole world with its breweries, so it is not surprising that a beer museum was opened here. Location - Grand Palace, 10. Main exhibits: old containers for storing beer and for its manufacture. Tourists will be interested to get acquainted with the brewing process, as well as taste a delicious freshly brewed drink. The museum is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm, the entrance fee is 5 euros.

Perhaps the main monument of Brussels, known far beyond its borders, is the Manneken Pis. The famous sculpture was born thanks to Jerome Duquesnoy and began to decorate the city of Brussels from 1619. Tourists will be able to find the landmark of the city at the Prence Palace. Interesting is a kind of representation associated with sculpture - dressing a boy in costumes, of which there are already more than a hundred. The process of changing clothes has become a favorite tradition of residents and guests of the city.

Few people know about another interesting monument in Brussels - the Pissing Girl. The sculpture appeared in the city in 1987. The monument is the idea of Denis-Adrien Debouvry, a famous sculptor. Finding a monument is not as easy as its famous counterpart, it is located at the end of the Avenue of Fidelity, you can use Rue des Bouchers as a landmark.

Monument to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

In Brussels, they paid tribute to the great Spanish writer and erected a monument to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Location - Spanish Square. The monument is installed on a high pedestal, so the architects protected it from possible acts of vandalism.

The real symbol of the Belgian capital is the Atomium monument, which is an enlarged copy of the iron molecule. The monument symbolizes the limitless possibilities of man, speaks of the need to use atomic energy for peaceful purposes. The author of the project is Andre Waterkeyn. The monument consists of nine huge spheres - iron atoms, the diameter of which is eighteen meters.

The spheres are interconnected with pipes. Each of the spheres performs a specific function - the one located at the top point is an observation deck of the city, the multi-colored sphere is a small cozy hotel, the central sphere is given over to a cafe. Separate spheres are exhibition halls and galleries.

The Atomium monument is one of the symbols of Brussels, it can be seen from many points of the city. You can get to the monument by metro, Heizel station. Hours: 10 am to 6 pm daily. Entrance fee: adult ticket - 11 euros, ticket for children from 12 to 18 years old - 8 euros, ticket for children aged 6 to 11 years old - 6 euros. Free admission is provided for children under 6 years old.

The initial appearance of Brussels was formed thanks to artisans and merchants, the active phase of development began only in the middle of the last century, when Brussels became a gathering place for the world's leading politicians. Today Brussels is a modern European city, where everyone can enjoy the ancient majestic buildings, excellent level of service, and unusual architectural monuments. Brussels has many sights that will take at least a week to get to know. An incredible amount of vivid memories awaits a tourist, the capital of Belgium knows how to surprise and amaze!

Among the streets of pastel-chocolate old Brussels lives a real great and immortal art. It is stored in the royal museums of fine arts, known throughout the world. This is a single system that stores and exposes priceless cultural treasures to the public. It includes museums of old and modern art located near the royal palace, as well as museums dedicated to the work of Wirtz and Meunier.

It seemed that there could be a more peaceful institution than an art museum. But the history of these Belgian collections is closely connected with by no means peaceful events - wars and revolutions.

A bit of history:

These treasures were brought together by the French revolutionaries in 1794, some of the works of art were moved to Paris. What remained, Napoleon ordered to collect in the former palace of the Austrian manager, and as a result, in 1803, a museum was opened there. After the overthrow of the emperor, the valuables taken to France were returned, and all the property came into the possession of the Belgian kings, who began to take care of replenishing the collections of paintings and sculptures with ancient and modern works.

2.
Museum exhibits

The old collection from 1887 is housed in a purpose-built building on the Rue de la Regens. And in the old Austrian palace there were works that were modern at that time. Already at the end of the last century, a building was added to the building to accommodate works created since 1900.

The Museum of Old Art contains luxurious collections of Flemish authors of the 15th-18th centuries: Campin, van der Weyden, Bouts, Memling, Bruegel the elder and younger, Rubens, van Dyck.

In the Dutch collection, Rembrandt, Hals, Bosch attract the most attention. Attention is also paid here to French and Italian painters - Lorrain, Robert, Greuze, Crivelli, Tentorelli, Tiepolo and Guardi. The paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder exhibited in the halls are widely known.

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One of the halls of the Royal Art Museum

The expositions of the Museum of Modern Art are presented primarily by the Belgians, such as Wirtz, Meunier, Stevens, Ensor, Knopf. But there are also famous Frenchmen here: Jacques Louis David, Ingres, Courbet, Fantin-Latour, Gauguin, Signac, Rodin, van Gogh, Corinth. Belgian and foreign surrealists are also gathered here: Magritte, Delvaux, Ernst, Dali.

In suburban Ixelles, the museum dedicated to Antoine Wirtz opened in 1868, and the museum dedicated to Constantin Meunier was attached to the royal museum in 1978.

Information for travelers:

Museums of old, modern art, Fin-de-Siecle (the history of the Belgian and pan-European Silver Age) and Rene Magritte

Address: (first 3 museums): Rue de la Régence / Regentschapsstraat 3
René Magritte Museum: Place royale / Koningsplein 1

Opening hours: Mon. – Sun: 10.00 – 17.00.
Closed January 1st, January 2nd Thursday, May 1st, November 1st, December 25th.
24 and 31 December open until 14.00

Ticket price:
Ticket to one of the museums: adults (24 - 64 years old) - 8 euros, adults over 65 - 6 euros, children and youth (6 - 25 years old) - 2 euros. Children under 5 years old - free of charge.
Combined ticket for 4 museums: adults (24 - 64 years old) - 13 euros, adults over 65 - 9 euros, children and youth (6 - 25 years old) - 3 euros. Children under 5 years old - free of charge.

How to get there:
Metro: lines 1 and 5 - go to Gare Centralt or Parc.
Trams: lines 92 and 94, buses: lines 27, 38, 71 and 95 - Royale stop.

Constantine Meunier Museum

Address: Rue de l'Abbaye / Abdijstraat 59.
Opening hours: Tue. – Fri.: 10.00 – 12.00, 13.00 – 17.00. The entrance is free.

BOZAR

This huge center of fine arts, built in the Art Deco era, has not only extensive exhibition areas, but also its own concert hall, cinema hall, laboratories for artists, musicians and architects. The center does not have its own collection, but it is here that the largest exhibitions of Belgium are held, including retrospectives that have already taken place, and dozens of other masters.

Musee du Cinquantenaire

Museum of the Ciftieth Anniversary, or Museum of Art History, is one of the largest in Belgium. Its history dates back to the 19th century, the reign of Leopold II and the time of the creation and unification of various royal collections. In terms of the eclectic composition of the collections, it can be compared with those in London or Vienna. It displays works of art and crafts from around the world, from antiquity to modernity, including an extensive block of works by African masters from former colonies. The museum has a large park where you can take a walk and look at the pavilion by the leading Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta.

Villa Empain / Fondation Boghossian

Villa Empain, built in 1911 by one of the founders of the Vienna Secession, Josef Hoffman, is located near the current center of Brussels. The luxurious building with a swimming pool and a garden was bought by the Lebanese jewelers Bogosyan family in the 1990s, completely restored and decided not only to show visitors a magnificent example of Art Deco style, but also to hold various exhibitions here. The expositions usually echo the spirit of the villa - its architecture and furniture of that time. Many classics of the last century have already been exhibited here, from to.

ADAM

Museum in Ixelles, like a puzzle, still continues to be made up of private donations, and it began at the end of the 19th century. Today, his collection contains more than ten thousand works of art from different centuries, including works by and, and, Ensor, Warhol and. There is also a large space for temporary exhibitions, which show a variety of exhibitions - from Belgian and European symbolists to photography.

Horta Museum

House-Museum of Victor Horta, one of the founders of the Art Nouveau style in architecture, was opened in 1969 and, despite its "boring" memorial status, remains one of the most visited museums in the city. Here you can see the furniture and decor of that era, personal belongings of Horta and, of course, admire the work of the master himself - Horta rebuilt his home several times, achieving almost ideal modernist proportions.

Van Buuren Museum

The Van Buuren House Museum It is both a fine example of Art Deco style (it was built in 1928 according to the project of the banker David van Buuren), and a vivid example of eclectic collecting, so loved by the Belgians today. The house, furnished with designer furniture and decorated with objects of art from different times, was at one time a real salon, where both Elvis Presley and Georges Minnet visited. Today, here you can not only look at fantastic interiors and furniture, but also see a collection of paintings and sculptures with masterpieces by Kees van Dongen and other masters.

ING Art Center

The exhibition space of one of the largest banks elegantly blended into the Museum Quarter along with the Royal Museums and BOZAR. Here, as in Vienna, owned by the Bank of Austria, there are large-scale exhibitions of local classics, as well as large prefabricated projects. For example, there have already been exhibitions of abstraction from the collection of the Guggenheim Museum, British and American pop art, a retrospective of modern art classics.

La Patinoire Royale

This large neoclassical building, built in 1877 in the center of Brussels for royal pleasures (there was a roller skating rink), today houses one of the largest exhibition halls in Belgium. For many years, the well-known gallery owner Valerie Bak has successfully rented it to show large-scale installations and monumental works. And she has something to show: only in the last couple of years, spaces have been filled with works by artists such as, and.

WIELS

Another center for contemporary art without its own collection, but with regular and extremely entertaining temporary exhibitions, as well as a large program of art residences. Its main task is to present to the audience both young and already well-known artists from all over the world. Rita McBride, Duncan Campbell, Simon Denny, Clara Liden and others have already been here as residents.

Vanhaerents Art Collection

The family collection of contemporary art from the 1970s to the present day is shown in a four-story industrial building from 1926. Its reconstruction thirteen years ago was carried out by the Ghent bureau Robbrecht en Daem. Today, both the permanent exhibition with the works of Warhol and Christian Boltanski are shown here, as well as temporary exhibitions.

CENTRALE For Contemporary Art

A private art center, which, in addition to large exhibition spaces for temporary exhibitions, includes residences for young artists under 35 and a workshop with a gallery for experiments CENTRALE.box. The expositions here are collected mainly from private Belgian collections of contemporary art of the XX-XXI centuries, so most often they are colorful both in composition and in themes - just like eclectic local collections.

CAB

This art foundation, located in a former warehouse built during the Art Deco era, puts on two major exhibitions a year - they take place from September to December and from April to June. Museum and gallery personalities from different countries act as curators, and the art exhibited here is also international: installations by Tony Matelli, sculpture by Wilfredo Prieto and pictorial experiments of the group coexist next to the house of Jean Prouvé.

MIMA

This private museum opened in 2016 in the Molenbeek district in a former brewery. In the same year, the building, from the roof of which offers stunning views of the center of Brussels, celebrated its centenary. Collectors-enthusiasts, owners of the museum, on four floors show a variety of art from around the world with a focus on multimedia and street art. Exhibitions of the Swedish duo Akay & Olabo, the Dutchman Boris Tellegen, as well as combined international expositions dedicated to graffiti and street art have already been held here.

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts (Belgium) (French Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Dutch Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) is a museum complex in Brussels and its suburb of Ixelles. Contains a significant collection of paintings and sculptures, owned by the Belgian state. The complex includes (in Brussels) the Museum of Ancient Art (full name: French Musée royal d "art ancien à Bruxelles) Museum of Modern Art (French Musée royal d" art moderne à Bruxelles) Magritte Museum (French Musée Magritte) Museum Fin de siècle (in Ixelles) Wirtz Museum (fr. Musée Wiertz) Meunier Museum (fr. Musée Meunier).

During the occupation of the Austrian Netherlands by the French revolutionary troops in 1794, the confiscation of works of art began in Brussels. The confiscated was stockpiled and partly transported to Paris. The remaining artistic values served as the basis for the museum founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801 in Brussels, which first opened its doors to the public two years later in the palace of the Austrian Stadtholder. In the years that followed, some of the art from this collection was sent to Paris. All confiscated valuables returned from Paris to Brussels only after the deposition of Napoleon. Since 1811 the museum became the property of the city of Brussels. With the emergence of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands under King William I, the museum's funds expanded significantly. In 1835, King Leopold I decided to create a national museum of Belgian artists now in the Belgian capital. Seven years later, the city and royal collections were combined and received in 1846 the name of the Royal Museums of Painting and Sculpture of Belgium. And a year before that, a department of contemporary art appeared in the museum. In 1887, a new museum building was opened on Rue de la Régence / Regentschapsstraat, designed by Alphonse Balat, which housed the department of ancient art. Collection of works of the XIX century. remained in its original place in the Habsburg palace. Only almost 100 years later, a building was added to the museum for the expanded collection of art of the 20th century.

Museum of Ancient Art

Flemish collection

The collection of the Museum of Ancient Art contains about 1,200 works of European art, covering the period from the 14th to the 18th centuries. The collection is based on works of Flemish painting, almost all Flemings are represented by their significant works. Among the canvases are The Annunciation by Robert Campin, Pieta and two portraits by Rogier van der Weyden, several paintings by Dirk Boats on religious themes, Petrus Christus and Hugo van der Goes, several portraits and The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian" by Hans Memling, "Madonna and Child" and a triptych of the Leuven brotherhood of St. Anna by Quentin Masseys, "Venus and Cupid" and two portraits of Mabuse's donors. The museum has 7 paintings by Pieter Brueghel (the Elder), incl. the famous “Fall of the Rebellious Angels”, as well as “The Adoration of the Magi”, “Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Bird Trap…