Mechelen

After 538 steps, you’ll be on the Sky Walk which affords a panoramic view of the Grote Markt and indeed the whole city. On your way to the top, stop and catch your breath in six rooms, each of which serves a different purpose. Take the opportunity to admire from close to the working tower clock and two carillons. There’s nothing like them in Europe!

Welcome to the Museum Hof van Busleyden! Step into this majestic and magnificent Renaissance palace in Mechelen, the capital of the Burgundian Netherlands. Find out more about the surprising Burgundian history as you venture deeper into the Hof van Busleyden, discovering its treasures and stories. Learn more about the Burgundians’ ideas, about the city, about power and about mastership and craftsmanship. Move from lively and bustling rooms to more private and quieter places. In this museum we look back at the city’s glorious history and look ahead to the future, together with you. Travel back and forth, between the past and present. Experiment and engage in a dialogue with the museum and its ever-changing collection. The story is far from finished.

Beguines are women who lived together and together sustained themselves. The charming, narrow streets of the beguinages are an oasis of peace and a wonderful place for a quiet stroll. Its typical Flemish character and unusual architecture ensured the Large Beguinage of a place on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites.

Between 1942 and 1944 Kazerne Dossin was used by the Nazis as a SS assembly point. Here more than 25,000 Jews and gypsies were put on the train for Auschwitz-Birkenau. Now it is the site of the new Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on the Holocaust and Human Rights, designed by leading architect bOb Van Reeth. At Kazerne Dossin the tragic war-time events are linked to human rights in general and to the theme of hope.

On the edge of the beguinage you’ll find Het Anker, the authentic brewery where the Gouden Carolus is brewed. Charles V’s favourite tipple back in the sixteenth century, in 2010 this specialist beer won the gold medal at the World Beer Awards.