Magritte Museum

The Magritte Museum, at Place Royale 1 in the Upper Town of Brussels, holds the world's largest collection of works by the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte. It occupies the Hôtel Altenloh, a neoclassical building on Place Royale, and is part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The collection is arranged over three floors in a broadly chronological order, following the artist from his early experiments with Cubism and Futurism through his Surrealist breakthrough in the 1920s and 1930s, to the later, more colourful periods. Visitors see well-known paintings alongside drawings, photographs, sculptures, advertising work and short films, giving context to the imagery of bowler hats, floating stones and pipes that deny being pipes. The lower levels explain Magritte's life in Brussels, while the upper floors concentrate on his most celebrated canvases. Most visits take around one and a half to two hours; an audio guide helps with the layered symbolism. The museum is generally calmer on weekday mornings, while weekends and rainy afternoons produce the largest crowds. Admission is about €10, and young visitors under nineteen enter free. Opening hours are Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 to 17:00 and weekends from 11:00 to 18:00, with the museum closed on Mondays. Tickets can be bought on the official website for the fine arts museums, which also offers a combined ticket with neighbouring galleries. Place Royale itself is worth a few minutes, with the church of Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg and the Coudenberg archaeological site close by. The museum is a five-minute walk from Parc metro station on lines 1 and 5, and several bus lines also stop at Royal.