I’ve just added a new pictures gallery on Blue Brussels with pictures from the Cinquantenaire park. I’ve also beefed up my Etangs d’Ixelles galleries with photos of the Flagey building.

The “Cinquantenaire” park, museums and monuments were meant to be erected to celebrate Belgium’s 50th anniversary in 1880. However the buildings were not finished until 1905, in time to celebrate the country’s 75th anniversary.

Besides the arch and the park, the Cinquantenaire complex houses the following museums:

• Royal Army and Military History Museum
• Autoworld
• Royal Museum of Art and History

In the gardens you will also find Belgium’s largest Mosque (originally a conference center for the 1897 World Fair held in Brussels), ironically located close to one of Victor Horta’s controversial creations: a building housing the sculptor’s Jef Lambeaux’s erotic Passions Humaines ensemble. This exhibit remains controversial to this day, and the building is only open on request for museum visitors.

If you are in Brussels in summertime, make sure you go to the Drive-In Movies: from the end of June till the end of August, a weekly selection of movies shown in open air at the Cinquantenaire. Old-timers pay half price, and moviegoers typically blast their horns when there is a lot of action (particularly erotic) on the screen! Check out our events page for more things to do in Brussels.

Popularity: 40% [?]

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