Musical Instruments Museum (MIM): Art Nouveau and music
Brussels: Brussels 49 Museums Atomium and Discounts Card
Is the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels worth visiting?
Yes — the MIM is a double draw: a world-class collection of 1,200+ instruments (with audio headphones that play each as you approach) housed in the spectacular Art Nouveau 'Old England' building, topped by a rooftop café with one of the best free-ish city views. Great for music lovers, architecture fans and anyone wanting a rainy-day highlight. Allow 1.5–2 hours.
A music museum inside an Art Nouveau jewel
The Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) is one of Brussels’ most delightful surprises — and a rare case where the building is as much a reason to visit as the collection. It occupies the “Old England”, a striking black iron-and-glass Art Nouveau former department store built in 1899 by architect Paul Saintenoy, and inside holds a world-class assembly of 1,200+ instruments across cultures and centuries. Crowning it all is a rooftop café with one of the city’s best views. Music lover or not, it’s a winner. See it among the best museums.
The MIM is also, quietly, one of the better architectural experiences in Brussels — not just because the building is beautiful, but because it represents something specific: in 1899, a department store architect chose to build something genuinely avant-garde on the conservative Place Royale. The Old England stood out then as deliberately confrontational, a piece of commercial modernism in a neoclassical square. Today that confrontation reads as art.
The building
The “Old England” is one of the finest Art Nouveau commercial buildings in Brussels — which is saying something, given the city’s extraordinary stock of the style. The black-painted wrought-iron frame, the curved glass bay windows, the ornate ironwork at the cornice: it stands in deliberate contrast to the classical stone grandeur of Place Royale around it. Paul Saintenoy designed it as a flagship for the Old England department store chain, and the transparency of the iron-and-glass façade was both a structural achievement and a marketing strategy — showing the goods inside from the street.
When the original Old England department store closed, there were serious proposals to demolish it in the 1970s. Its conversion into the MIM in 2000 was widely celebrated as precisely the right use: the open floors and excellent light make it ideal for a collection of objects that need to be seen clearly from multiple angles. Stop on Rue Montagne de la Cour before entering to look at the whole façade — it’s one of Brussels’ hidden Art Nouveau gems.
The clever audio system
The MIM’s signature feature: infrared headphones that you wear throughout. As you walk up to an instrument, the system automatically plays a recording of it — so you don’t just see a 17th-century harpsichord or a Javanese gamelan, you hear it in its full voice. It turns a museum of silent objects into a living soundscape, and it works extraordinarily well.
A 16th-century lute begins playing lute music as you lean in. A Congolese thumb piano fills your ears with its specific timbre. A glass harmonica — one of the stranger instruments ever invented — chimes as you approach. Each encounter is both educational and aesthetically satisfying. The audio system was genuinely innovative when introduced and remains one of the best implementations in any museum anywhere.
For children, the effect is immediately magical — instruments that look like strange objects suddenly announce themselves with their voices. For adults who aren’t particularly musical, it provides a direct pathway into the collection that reading display panels doesn’t.
The collection
European instruments from the Renaissance to today — keyboards, strings, brass, woodwind, the bizarre and the beautiful. The keyboard collection is particularly strong: historic harpsichords, early fortepianos, unusual variants of established forms. A 19th-century saxhorn, a glass harmonica, a viola d’amore — instruments that no longer exist in living performance but that the MIM keeps audible.
Folk and traditional instruments from Belgium and Europe — the tools of village music-making across the centuries, showing how locally distinct the European folk instrument tradition was before mass production homogenised it.
Non-Western instruments from across the world — a serious ethnomusicology collection with objects from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. The collection has its roots in the 1880s Belgian colonial project (uncomfortable in origin but musically significant in scope); today it’s curated with appropriate context.
Mechanical and historic curiosities — automatons, early recording devices, self-playing instruments and the predecessors of electronic music. This section rewards the visitor who has run out of enthusiasm for conventional instruments and is looking for something unexpected.
Allow 1.5–2 hours, more for enthusiasts. The collection rewards slow exploration; the audio system encourages you to linger at instruments you’d otherwise walk past in 30 seconds.
The rooftop café and view
The rooftop café/terrace at the top of the building is one of the best viewpoints in Brussels — a panoramic sweep over the lower town rooftops, the spires of the cathedral, the Atomium on the horizon on a clear day, and the dramatic landscape of the Mont des Arts below. You can visit the rooftop café without paying museum entry, which makes it one of the most accessible city viewpoints in Brussels.
Go on a sunny afternoon when the terrace is open and the light is good. It pairs naturally with the Mont des Arts gardens below — descend from the rooftop view to the gardens for the ground-level equivalent of the same panorama.
Practical info
- Where: Rue Montagne de la Cour, on the Mont des Arts, upper town — short uphill walk from the Grand-Place, near the Magritte Museum and Royal Fine Arts.
- Tickets: modestly priced; covered by museum passes (Brussels Card, and a multi-museum card).
- Closed Mondays; check current hours before going.
- The rooftop café can be accessed without a museum ticket — useful if you just want the view.
Combine on the Mont des Arts
The MIM sits in Brussels’ cultural cluster, so pair it for a rich half-day:
- MIM — instruments, building, rooftop view. (~1.5 hrs)
- Magritte Museum next door — surrealism, 200+ works (guide). (~1.5 hrs)
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts — Bruegel, Rubens, Flemish masters (guide). (~1.5 hrs)
- Mont des Arts gardens and viewpoint — a brief, pleasant interlude between museums.
A brilliant, weatherproof culture day in a compact area — all within 10 minutes’ walk of each other. The MIM is the overlooked member of this trio; start there before it fills up, then cross to the heavier hitters.
The verdict
Worth it — and underrated. The combination of a world-class, audible collection, a gorgeous Art Nouveau building, and a rooftop panorama makes the MIM one of the most enjoyable museums in Brussels for a modest ticket price. The audio system is genuinely clever; the building is beautiful; the rooftop is free. Don’t skip it because you’re focused on Magritte or the Fine Arts — spend 90 minutes here first, and the whole Mont des Arts morning becomes one of the city’s most complete cultural experiences.
Frequently asked questions — Musical Instruments Museum (MIM): Art Nouveau and music
What is special about the MIM in Brussels?
Two things: the building (a black iron-and-glass Art Nouveau former department store, the 'Old England') and the audio system — infrared headphones automatically play recordings of the instruments as you stand before them. Plus a rooftop café/terrace with a panoramic view over Brussels.Where is the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels?
On the Mont des Arts in the upper town (Rue Montagne de la Cour), near the Magritte Museum and Royal Museums of Fine Arts — a short walk uphill from the Grand-Place. It's easy to combine with the other Mont des Arts museums.
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