While I was in Brussels last month, one of the attractions I visited was the Brussels City Museum, which includes a diverse collection of information important to the city of Brussels from Manneken Pis to a fire to city planning to porcelain. The museum is situated in The King's House in the square, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The building is beautiful, and there are several floors with different exhibitions.
The first room had some early history about the architcture and the previous buildings that occupied the site, including some stonework and carvings. The Prophets are pictured below, and there was also a very old gargoyle and one of the earliest carvings.
The next area included porcelain made in Brussels. Brussels was also known to create altars for churches and tapestries were another famous export (if not the most famous export of the city). I liked the porcelain in the shape of vegetables.
On one of the upper floors, there was a discussion about the city planning and a model of the old city. The city used to have a river through it and docks, but the docks were unclean and smelled bad. The river was covered. There were paintings depicting Brussels with the riverside and parts of the town that no longer exist. A painter was commissiond to paint the streets of Brussels before demolition of areas.
One of the exhibitions at the top of the museum is the weather vane that used to grace the top of the town hall. It depicts Saint Michael, who is regarded as the important saint of Brussels. It dates to the middle of the 1400s. This same room housed information about the fire and seize of Brussels.
A final room at the top was dedicated to Manneken Pis. The original Manneken Pis statue is located here, and a few of his outfits and tributes from other countries are shown. He's so famous that he has a book in China. Entrance to the Manneken Pis Garderobe museum is free of cost with a visit to the Brussels City Museum. For informtion about that museum, see: Manneken Pis.
I enjoyed my afternoon visit to the Brussels City Museum, and it is a good museum to learn about the history of the city.
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