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A triumphal arch in a public park, free to walk under, with three separate museums behind it.
What it costs
The park and the arch are free and open at all hours.
Three ticketed museums share the site and are not one ticket: Autoworld, the Art & History Museum, and the Royal Military Museum. The colonnade on top of the arch can sometimes be climbed via the military museum — worth asking, because the view along the axis is the best thing here.
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When to go
Park always; museums keep normal hours and close on Mondays. The park is where the European Quarter comes to eat lunch, so it has a weekday rhythm.
Getting there
Metro 1 or 5 to Merode or Schuman. It adjoins the European Quarter, so the two combine.
If you only have an hour
Walk under the arch and out into the park — free, and the axis view is the point. Skip all three museums unless one is specifically your subject; each needs longer than an hour.
What people get wrong
The arch was not finished for the fiftieth anniversary it was built for — it went up in 1905, twenty-five years late, largely at Leopold II’s expense. Which is the other thing worth knowing: this park, like much of monumental Brussels, was paid for with money from the Congo Free State, and Belgian museums have only recently begun saying so plainly.
Nearby
Ticketing arrangements and opening patterns as published for 2026 and checked on 5 September 2026. These change without much warning — confirm with the site itself before you travel. More sights, and how they fit together, in Landmarks & Sights.