Museum of Natural Sciences (Dinosaur Gallery)

The Museum of Natural Sciences on Rue Vautier in the European Quarter of Brussels is the main natural history museum in Belgium, best known for its Dinosaur Gallery. The gallery displays a group of Iguanodon skeletons found in a coal mine at Bernissart in Hainaut in 1878, one of the largest finds of complete dinosaur skeletons in Europe. Many are mounted standing, while others are arranged as they were found, and they are shown alongside other fossil reptiles and a reconstruction of the prehistoric environment. Other halls include the Whales gallery with large skeletons of marine mammals, the Gallery of Evolution, a mineral and gem collection, and exhibits on Belgian biodiversity, insects and human origins. The museum is aimed at families, with interactive displays and labelled specimens, and school groups visit often on weekday mornings. A standard visit takes two to three hours, and the dinosaurs alone can be seen in about an hour. Weekday mornings outside school-trip periods are the quietest, while weekends and wet-weather days are the busiest, when queues can form at the ticket desk. The building stands next to Leopold Park, whose lawns provide a break after the visit. Metro lines 1 and 5 to Maelbeek or Schuman bring visitors within about a twelve-minute walk, and buses 34 and 80 stop close to the museum. A cafe and shop are on site. Photographers often capture the Iguanodon hall from the upper walkway for a full view of the skeleton group. The European Quarter's Parlamentarium is nearby, so the two can be combined for a day of museum visits in Brussels, Belgium. Adult admission is around 12 euros, with reduced fares for children and free entry for under-threes.