Parc du Cinquantenaire — known in Dutch as Jubelpark, meaning "Jubilee Park" — is a 30-hectare formal park in the eastern European Quarter of Brussels, conceived by King Leopold II to mark the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence in 1880. The centrepiece is the monumental triumphal arch, the Arcades du Cinquantenaire, which Leopold commissioned from architect Gédéon Bordiau in 1880 but which was not completed until 1905, when architect Charles Girault added the crowning bronze quadriga, Brabant Raising the National Flag, sculpted by Thomas Vincotte. The arch stands 45 metres tall at its highest point and connects two symmetrical exhibition palaces, originally built to host Belgium's national expositions and today repurposed as three major museums.
Those museums give the park its cultural weight far beyond its gardens. The Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (Royal Museums of Art and History), founded in 1835 and one of the largest decorative-arts collections in Europe, fills the south wing with antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the pre-Columbian Americas, alongside Flemish tapestries and Belgian Art Nouveau glasswork. The north wing houses Autoworld, a celebrated collection of over 250 historic automobiles dating from an 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen replica to mid-20th-century racing cars. A third museum, the Royal Museum of the Army and Military History, occupies a connecting hall and includes a remarkable aviation section with First and Second World War aircraft suspended in a glass-roofed hangar — all three institutions are accessible from within the park.
Beyond the museums, the park itself is one of Brussels' most pleasant green spaces. Symmetrical tree-lined allées radiate from the arch, passing ornamental fountains, manicured lawns, and a small mosque — the Grand Mosque of Brussels, installed in 1967 in a pavilion originally built for the 1880 exposition and donated to the Islamic Cultural Centre by King Baudouin. On weekends the park fills with joggers, families, and cyclists; on clear evenings the arch is illuminated and the view through its three vaults down Avenue de la Renaissance toward the city is one of Brussels' quietly dramatic urban perspectives.
The park is freely accessible year-round and is a ten-minute walk from Schuman metro station (line 1/5), which also serves the European Commission and European Parliament buildings nearby. Museum admission is separate: the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire charge a modest entry fee, while Autoworld and the Army Museum have their own ticketing. Visit on a Tuesday through Sunday — all three museums are closed on Mondays. Bringing a picnic and arriving in the late afternoon allows you to explore the museums before closing and then enjoy the arch at dusk, when the stone glows amber in the western light.
