Autoworld is Belgium's National Automobile Museum, occupying the south wing of the Cinquantenaire Palace in Brussels' Parc du Cinquantenaire. The palace itself was commissioned by King Leopold II to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Kingdom of Belgium in 1880, and its grand neo-classical hall — built to host large-scale national exhibitions — provides one of Europe's most architecturally dramatic settings for a car museum. The building has a direct connection to automotive culture: between 1902 and 1936, it regularly hosted the Brussels Motor Show and motorcycle exhibitions, making it a natural home for the collection that would eventually open here permanently in 1986.
The museum's core collection was assembled by Ghislain Mahy, a Belgian industrialist and one of the 20th century's most dedicated classic car collectors. His acquisition spanned decades and encompassed rarities from across Europe and North America. Today, more than 300 vehicles are on permanent display — ranging from an 1886 Karl Benz-era horseless carriage through to concept and design cars that foreshadowed modern automotive engineering. The chronological layout traces the full arc of the automobile's development, with dedicated sections covering motorsport and competition vehicles, micro and bubble cars of the post-war era, cars belonging to the Belgian Royal Family, and a Belgium at Autoworld gallery tracing the largely forgotten history of Belgian car manufacturing — a domestic industry that, at its early-20th-century peak, included marques such as Minerva and FN.
Visitors move through the collection across a vast, light-filled floor plan beneath the palace's iron-and-glass roof structure. Unlike many vehicle museums that display cars behind barriers, Autoworld's scenography allows close access to many of the exhibits, particularly those from 1960 onward, so visitors can examine coachwork, interiors, and engine bays with genuine proximity. The permanent collection is supplemented by rotating temporary exhibitions — recent examples have focused on Aston Martin and icons of the 1990s — as well as regular Cars & Coffee events that bring privately owned classics to the museum forecourt.
Autoworld is located at Parc du Cinquantenaire 11, easily reached by Brussels metro (Merode or Schuman stations) or tram. The museum is open daily, with standard hours from 10:00 to 17:00 (extended to 18:00 on weekends from April through September). It is included on the Brussels Card and the museumpassmusées. Photography is permitted throughout the permanent galleries, and a dedicated museum shop carries scale models, books, and automotive memorabilia. Visitors combining the trip with the nearby Royal Museum of the Armed Forces or the Cinquantenaire Museum can make a full day of the palace complex.
