List of museums in Brussels

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Like many other cities in the 19th century, Brussels was a warren of medieval streets and houses. During the reign of Leopold I, Brussels underwent a period of reconstruction. The main square of the upper town became the Place Royale, or Royal Square, surrounded by government buildings and close to the Royal Palace. Leopold I was sworn in here on the steps of the Church Saint-Jacques sur Coudenberg. In the centre of the Place is the statue of Godfrey, an 11th century nobleman from what is now Belgium. He was briefly ruler of Jerusalem during the Crusades. Plaques on the sides of the monument were later added depicting scenes from the capture of Jerusalem and Godfrey's court. Wide avenues were created leading out from the square, allowing views of the grand architecture. Nearby, the Royal Palace which was started under Dutch rule, was extended and embellished with royal emblems. It was within this context of nation building that Leopold II developed his grandiose plans for Brussels. The Parc du Cinquantenaire was originally planned for an 1880 exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Belgium. The Cinquantenaire buildings are in different styles. The two exhibition rooms which flank the arch are built using metal and glass. These were built in a period when Leopold had little control over construction. They were erected as a showcase for Belgium's growing industrial might. For the new Cinquantenaire arch, Leopold II chose a more imperial style. This was similar to that used in other European imperial capitals but contrasted sharply with the range of styles preferred by Brussels' bourgeoisie. At the end of the 19th century Brussels was at the forefront of the Art Nouveau style. The Palais Stoclet, completed in 1911, was in the very latest style, Viennese Succession, and was seen at the time as a symbol of modern architecture. But Leopold preferred far more traditional styles for his monumental projects. His plans didn't stop with the Parc du Cinquantenaire. He had a five-mile long boulevard built, linking the park with Tervuren, the site of his next grand plan, the Africa Museum. Statues and panels in the museum celebrated Belgium's contribution to the development of the Congo. And those Belgians who died in its conquest and in suppressing the slave trade. Large wall paintings and maps displayed Belgium's new colony. We renamed them since the time of Belgian Congo as an instrument of propaganda, as a sort of showroom of the Belgian activities in Congo. So our museum from the start had the role to make people take an interest in the Congo, take an interest in life, encourage people to go and work there and so to sell it to the public at large that the colonial activities in Congo were a good thing for Belgium. Although plans for more buildings at Tervuren were abandoned this was not the end of commemorations of Leopold's rule. In 1912, a monument of the Congo was commissioned from one of Belgium's leading sculptors, Thomas Vinçotte for the Cinquantenaire park. The monument took nine years to complete and commemorated Leopold's conquest of the Congo. The central panel shows missionaries leading Africans to the seated Leopold II. Inscribed across the top of the monument in French and Flemish are the words, 'I undertook the Congo project in the interests of civilisation and for the good of Belgium. Leopold II, 3rd June, 1906.' In 2005, the Africa Museum staged an exhibition called Memories of Congo. It was a way of addressing Belgium's colonial history. The colonial past of Congo is very rich and very broad. So you have to make a lot of decisions, what will you show, what will you not show. It's a historical exhibit so that's never very easy. It's not that you have a lot of objects to show or to illustrate, also things that happened 100 years ago, there's often no photographic record or no films about it. The most difficult part was how to treat the more controversial aspects. It was very emotional to even start with this exhibit. We had to be very careful. It was walking on a tightrope. It released a lot of emotions. It's very hard to look at the past with the moral standards of today. But if you look at it as a sign of the times and the context of the times, I think Leopold II was a visionary even though in those days he was a megalomaniac and I think even though there is no evidence that he was personally responsible for the violence, he did get a lot of signals that something was going wrong and he waited far too long to do something about it. If Belgium hadn't rubbed off the international protest movement that came mainly from England, if they'd taken that criticism and done something about it, I think we could have been much more proud of our history than we can be today. �