The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History at the Parc du Cinquantenaire (Jubelpark, Jubilee Park) in Brussels is a major museum in Brussels. Yet it doesn’t feature on the top of mind of Belgians.

In Dutch the museum is called Koninklijk Museum van het Leger en de Krijgsgeschiedenis or Legermuseum in short. In French it’s called Musée Royal de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire or Musée de l’Armée.

Museum history

At the Brussels exhibition of 1910, a section on military history was presented to the public and met with great success.

Given the enthusiasm of the population, the authorities created a military museum. The museum was originally installed on the site of the Abbaye de la Cambre and moved to the Cinquantenaire Park in 1923.

Exhibition

A striking part of the museum is the so-called Historic Hall. It features thousands of artifacts including flags, uniforms, paintings, weapons, maps … The Hall is special for its old fashioned layout. The Hall is a view on history in itself and we can only hope the museum leadership keeps it as it is.

Other halls in the museum feature World War I, World War II, tanks and artillery, renaissance weaponry etcetera.

Aviation

A man feature of the museum is the Aviation Hall comprising of 140+ flying objects.

Oddly, the Museum is required to keep Sabena (now Brussels Airlines) objects so there’s a Sabena section as well.

Half a day or a full day

I visited the Amy Museum on the 21st of July, the National Holiday in Belgium celebrating the inauguration of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as King of the Belgians.

I only stayed some two hours and that is definitely too short. Half a day or a full is is better.