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EXPLORING THE MUSEUMS OF BELGIUM
By Linda Perez (guide Linda Kaye)
When my husband and I arrived in Belgium for a 7-day stay, we
were excited about what we would discover, as we both love history, old buildings, and
breathtaking landscapes. We found it all in Belgium.
Belgium's history dates back to the Middle Ages, so it's not
surprising that a great variety of museums exist to document the country's rich past. For
some, the word museum conjures up visions of a sterile, boring place from which
the visitor often feels estranged. However, we did not find this to be true. The museums
we visited were not only instructive and innovative, but also entertaining and inspiring.
Brussels has over 100 museums of both the traditional and unique
variety. How about the Little Museum of Nesting Boxes and Feeders (for bird lovers) or
the Museum of Fairground Organs, Music Boxes, and Gramophones? The most unusual
museum we found was the Museum of Sewers, which explores the history of urban
development from a public-health standpoint. You can even get a guided tour of an
underground sewer system!
On a walking tour of Old Brussels, we were introduced to the
Museum of Musical Instruments. This museum now occupies the Old England
Shop, one of the first great multi-level department stores built in Europe. The building
was renovated using steel and glass, an innovative design that befits such a lively
collection. The 7,000+ instruments include a tenor saxophone invented by Adolphe Sax
in 1861. And have you ever wondered what a hurdy-gurdy was? You can see a beautiful
one on display here. The hurdy-gurdy is a medieval instrument that is usually made of
wood; shaped like a short, fat guitar; and held flat on the player's lap. Three to six strings
vibrate against a rosined wheel turned by a crank, while a limited keyboard controls
certain tones. We had the opportunity to hear one, and it sounded like several violins in
perfect harmony.
Some of Belgium's museums are in buildings, whereas others are
located on the hallowed ground where historic events took place. At Waterloo,
a short 15 miles from Brussels, there are several museums dedicated to the Battle of
Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815. These include the Wellington Museum,
Napoleon's Last Headquarters, and the actual battlefields themselves.
The Battle of Waterloo was one of the great turning points of
European history and was Napoleon's last desperate effort to regain power in Europe.
Determined to prevent this, the countries of Russia, the Netherlands, Austria, Britain, and
Prussia, led by the Duke of Wellington, set out to stop Napoleon. The battle culminated
when 191,300 men converged on the farmland surrounding the town of Waterloo.
Defeated, Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to an island in the South Atlantic, where he
died in 1821.
In 1826, the Butte de Lion (Lion's Mound) was
completed and dedicated at the mid-point of the Allied Lines, providing a magnificent
panorama of the entire battlefield. Sitting atop this 470-foot-high man-made mountain is
a huge bronze lion. We climbed the 226 steps to the top and had a perfect view of the
surrounding landscape as we listened to our guide describe in detail how the battle
unfolded.
We had a similar experience in Bastogne, learning about the
Battle of the Bulge. The entire Bastogne area is a living museum—everywhere
we looked there were memorials and tributes to the American soldiers who liberated the
town in 1944 and drove back the German army. The Bastogne Historical
Center graphically depicts battle scenes, planning meetings that took place between
the ranking officers, and soldiers warming themselves around a fire. After we viewed the
short documentary film that contains actual footage from the Battle of the Bulge, we
could sense the bitter cold weather and the hardships these men endured. The museum
representations were so vivid, it was quite a moving experience for us.
In Namur, we toured one of the smallest museums we had ever
visited. The Tresor du Prieure d'Oignies occupies a room in the Convent of
the Sisters of Notre Dame. It is an awesome collection of work created in the 13th
century by a goldsmith named Brother Hugo. Our guide painstakingly described each
piece to us—how the gold or metal was formed around wood and then manipulated to
create the beautiful designs. Hugo's detailed work was so intricate that on a single
medallion, we could clearly see an entire scene: a monk holding a staff in a garden, with
beautiful scrollwork all around it. The incredible patience required to mold these precious
works of art was both inspiring and forever memorable.
It was also in Namur that we visited the Felician Rops
Museum. Rops was an outspoken champion of artistic freedom. His major works
were very strange, to say the least. He was a lover of the fantastic and the supernatural,
and themes such as the devil, skeletons, and death recur throughout his work. Possibly
one of Rops's best-known pieces is Pornokrates (1858), depicting a blindfolded
woman wearing only stockings, gloves, and shoes, walking on a marble stage led by a pig
on a leash, with three cherubs hovering above. The symbolism of this painting will
boggle your mind.
Continuing on to Ghent, we visited the Museum of
Decorative Arts and Design, where we walked through an assortment of
completely furnished rooms ranging in style from Renaissance to modern. The building
housing this museum bears the characteristics of Flemish bourgeois architecture of the
18th century. A new wing added in 1992 is almost as interesting as its contents, with
unique display areas, graceful open staircases, and a futuristic design. Most interesting
was an exhibit titled 100 Years 100 Chairs, with some of the weirdest chairs
we'd ever seen. I wondered if anyone had ever sat on the "Banana Chair"?
 Moving outdoors again, we visited two citadels, one in Namur and
one in Dinant. Our favorite by far was the Dinant Citadel. Perched high on rock
cliffs, both citadels had breathtaking views of the valleys below, but the Dinant Citadel
provided a history tour of the entire area. The original fortress was built in 1040, then
destroyed and rebuilt in 1523. The citadel of today was completed in 1821 and
demilitarized in 1868 when it was opened to tourists. The free tour took us through rooms
reconstructed to represent life in the citadel at different periods of time. We learned how
people lived in this self-contained city in the sky during the 1820s, with a bakery,
blacksmith shop, and maze of tunnels connecting different sections.
On our way from Bastogne back to Brussels, we visited the
Chateau des Comtes de Marchin—commonly known as the Modave
Castle. Approaching the castle along a long, tree-lined drive, it didn't look like
much. However, that thought disappeared as soon as we entered the main building. The
rooms open to the public are filled with magnificent carved furniture made of sycamore,
ebony, and walnut; chairs upholstered in fine velvets and silk; and brightly colored 17th-
and 18th-century tapestries and paintings. In the Hercules Drawing Room, the chimney
above the black marble fireplace depicts the marriage of Hercules and Hebe on a raised
stucco panel. All furnishings are original to Modave Castle, and many items were
designed specifically for the castle.
None of the above museums and historical sites are expensive to
visit. In fact, many are free. We were fortunate to have met guides so passionate and
dedicated to their work and with a single aim—to help us enjoy and appreciate Belgium. I
truly believe they represented the people well, and they certainly helped us understand
Belgium's place in the world. As for museums, they were like windows, allowing us to
see both the past and the future—the way things were and the way things might be.
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