Cinquantenaire Park & Museums

The Cinquantenaire is Brussels' triumphal park — a vast green space anchored by a monumental triple arch built in 1905 to celebrate Belgium's 50th anniversary of independence. The arch, with its bronze quadriga (four-horse chariot) on top, is Brussels' answer to the Arc de Triomphe, and the two wings flanking it house three museums that together contain one of the most important collections of art, history, and automobiles in Europe.

The Art & History Museum (Musée Art & Histoire) is one of the largest museums in the world — a labyrinthine collection spanning Egyptian antiquities, Greek and Roman sculpture, medieval tapestries, Art Nouveau decorative arts, and non-European art from the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. The collection is so large and varied that you could visit a dozen times and see different things each time. The Autoworld museum, in the opposite wing, houses over 250 vintage cars, including the collection of Belgian automobiles that traces the country's surprisingly important role in early automotive history.

The park itself is popular with joggers, picnickers, and the office workers from the nearby EU institutions (the European Quarter borders the park to the east). The arch provides the framing view — standing beneath it and looking west across the park toward the city centre, or east toward the European Parliament, captures the two identities of modern Brussels: the national capital and the European capital, coexisting uneasily in the same city.