One of the mansions that makes up the Palais Royal, the Hôtel Bellevue , at the corner of place des Palais and rue Royale, has been turned into
Musée de la Dynastie , which tracks through the brief history of the Belgian royal family. It is all very professionally done, comprising a brisk chrono logical trawl juiced up by a wide range of personal artefacts - clothes, shoes, letters and the like - donated by the royals, with separate sections on each of the country's mon archs. There is a particularly detailed section on the recently deceased King Baudouin, who seems to have been a kind and gentle soul, but the museum almost always dodges the controversies that have surrounded several of its kings. It is particularly shameless in its treatment of Léopold II: apparently, he loved to travel and was quite an adventurer, attributes which his Congolese victims (of whom there is scarcely a mention) would have been hard pressed to appreciate.
The museum also gives access to the labyrinth of caves that are all that remain of the
Coudenberg Palace , which once occupied the top of the hill on what is now place Royale. A castle was built here in the eleventh century and enlarged on several subsequent occasions, but it was badly damaged by fire in 1731 and the site was cleared in 1775. The foundations were, however, left untouched and have recently been cleared of debris. Further restorative work is planned, but at the moment visitors can wander round these dusty foundations, a highlight of which is the Magna Aula, or great hall, built by Philip the Good in the 1450s. A map of the layout of the palace is provided at reception, but you still need a vivid imagination to get much out of a visit.
