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Museum for cinema, with an exhibition focussing on objects and discoveries that represent the many steps leading to the invention of cinema: from Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers, through the phenakistiscope of Joseph Plateau. Many displays are interactive, with mechanisms to operate the devices to understand their operation better. Interactive consoles allow visitors to watch short and medium length films, and a small video projection room broadcasts additional images of filmmakers, trailers, commercials, and short films. The archives and library of the film association, along with documentation, books, and magazines, are also on display along with relevant Belgian press cuttings and photos. The museum features 2 rooms: the Ledoux room with 117 seats, and a small auditorium with 29 seats, where 40 films per week are screened. Silent films are accompanied by piano, or with restored sound where available. Until its destruction in 2006, the museum operated the last authentic mute cinema room in the world.
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Musée des Instruments de Musique/Muziekinstrumentenmuseum
The museum houses more than 7000 instruments, from all times and all over the world. The museum’s reputation is built on its extraordinary collection. The exhibits are displayed on four different floors featuring a wide range of instruments from all time periods and areas of the world. The MIM is a place to experience music. An infrared headphone system allows each visitor to enjoy the sound and melodies played by the instruments presented. The restaurant on the roof is also famous because of its panoramic view over Brussels. You need around 3 or 4 hours to really enjoy the whole museum, make sure you have enough time! The ornate façade of the building was decorated as such to promote the work of local tradesman and to protest the loss of jobs due to automation.
Musée du Coudenberg
From the middle ages, a castle overlooked Brussels from Coudenberg hill. From the 12th century, the successive monarchs and their representatives transformed a small fortified castle into a sumptuous residential palace, one of the most beautiful palace of Europe and one of Charles V’s main residences. This prestigious building is severely damaged by fire in 1731. Some forty years later, the ruins of the palace are pulled down and the ground flattened out for the construction of the new royal district. The remains of this palace make up the Coudenberg archaeological site. During your visit, you will discover the Isabella Street and the old structures of the main buildings of the former palace of Brussels, which are now the foundations for today’s royal district and the Hoogstraeten House where the most interesting discoveries made during the various archaeological excavations conducted on the Coudenberg are displayed.
This museum is dedicated to the life and art of the Belgian artist René Magritte. It holds a multidisciplinary collection containing more than 200 of Magritte's works. This is part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium: use the same entrance and ask for a ticket which includes the Magritte Museum.
Mont des Arts/Kunstberg
The hill (often referred to its historic French name Mont des Arts, literally Mountain of Arts) is the northern slope of the Koudenberg, and roughly halfway between the Royal Palace and the Grand-Place. One of the first and oldest residential neighborhoods of Brussels, the St. Rochus Quarter (Sint-Rochuswijk in Dutch) was here. By the 15th century, the quarter had become a ghetto for Jews. Later, large sections of the quarter were claimed by the city for the construction of administrative buildings and palaces. Between the 15th and 18th century, monumental palaces were constructed: the Palace of Nassau from 1440 to ca. 1750, the Palace of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine (1757), the Granvelle Palace (1555-1931) and the Palace of the Coudenberg (mid 14th century until 1731). At the end of the 19th century, King Leopold II launched the idea to transform what was left of the St. Rochus Quarter into the cultural heart of Belgium. Various architects made designs for the hill, and King Leopold II himself acquired all the properties in the medieval quarter, which were subsequently razed, and the Jews were expelled to Antwerp where they still thrive. Only the Palace of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine and the Granvelle Palace were preserved. Unfortunately, the Belgian government refused to fund the king's project, and for 8 years the large area remained an unused brownfield, and an eye sore in the heart of the capital. With the upcoming World Fair of 1910, King Leopold II commissioned Parisian architect Pierre Vacherot to hastily find a new purpose for the area. He designed a monumental staircase with numerous fountains, waterfalls and sculptures. The park was inaugurated by the king's successor and son, King Albert I, in 1910 after the death of his father. When Brussels prospered after the Second World War and funding was no longer a problem, the original project was revived, and many buildings constructed that remain: the Royal Albertina Library, the Congress Palace, and the Dynasty Palace. The current layout follows a design of architect Jules Ghobert, whereas the Albertina was designed by Maourice Houyoux. The park gradually shrunk to make room for these new buildings, as well as for parking garages and the Central Station. The current park, Tuin van de Kustberg in Dutch (literally: garden of the Hill of Arts), was a design of garden architect René Pechère, which were complemented with a few new buildings for the 1958 World's Fair. The staircase offers visitors one of the most spectacular views over the city, looking out over the Grand-Place. When the weather is clear, the Koekelberg Basilica and even the Atomium can be seen in the distance.
Musée BELvue
Features Belgium's history. Before it became a museum, the 18th-century luxury hotel was a royal residence.
Église Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg/Sint-Jacob-op-Koudenbergkerk
A neoclassical church on the historic King's Square, overlooking the lower city and offering a magnificent view over the Grand-Place (particularly at dusk!). It started as a medieval abbey church, which was demolished by Charles Alexander of Lorraine during his expansive urban planning projects, despite having escaped the great fire of 1731 that destroyed the nearby Coudenberg Palace. The church was designed by architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard, and the first stone was laid down by Charles Alexander himself in 1776. After the building's consecration, it was used as an abbey- and parish church simultaneously, and in addition it was the official church of the court of the Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands. Since it was designed to serve the church of the abbey of Saint-Jacques, it has a deep extended choir with place for choir stalls for the monks. During the French Revolution, as with all other religious buildings, the abbey was suspended and the church converted into a Temple of Reason, but restored to Catholic control in 1802. It played an important role in the inception of the Belgian monarchy 30 years later, when the first Belgian king, Leopold I, made his oath on the front steps of the church. Although the building lost some of its typical neoclassical temple-like appearance by the addition of a bell tower in the 19th century and a coloured fresco on the pediment, it remains one of the most unusual examples of religious architecture in Brussels.