MUSEA
Schepenhuis Museum
The Schepenhuis, or Aldermen's House, is one of the most eyecatching buildings in Mechelen. The earliest reference to it dates from 1288. The Schepenhuis has a fascinating history and this is reflected in the building. First it was the town hall, later on the seat of the Great Council and then the home of the municipal collection and the city archive. The Schepenhuis has been a municipal museum since 2000. The Schepenhuis houses one of the best - perhaps the best - collection of artworks by Rik Wouters.
Kazerne Dossin. Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights | Opening early 2013
Kazerne Dossin is a very special place of remembrance for Belgium. As 'SS Sammellager Mecheln', the Dossin barracks was a waitingroom for death for more than 25,000 Jews and gypsies from Belgium and Northern France during the Second World War. A brand-new museum has been built to record the historical significance of this place for present and future generations and to illustrate themes like racism, exclusion and human rights.The combination of the human rights theme and the historical story of the Holocaust in Belgium makes Kazerne Dossin a project of European interest. The new museum was designed by leading architect and former Flemish Government Architect bOb Van Reeth.
Toy Museum Mechelen
The Toy Museum boasts one of the largest collections of toys in Europe. You'll find toys from all over the world, from early toys to modern. There's much more to a museum visit than just looking: you can play traditional games and relive historical events such as the Battle of Waterloo (precisely 200 years ago in 2015) as if you had been there in person. Which of these toys did you play with yourself? And would young children still do so today? The museum brings memories of childhood flooding back for young and old.
Royal Manufacturers De Wit
The Royal Manufacturers De Wit is world famous for restoring valuable tapestries by hand. Thanks partly to its ingenious, patented cleaning system, De Wit has clients in every corner of the globe. De Wit also has a prestigious collection of antique and modern tapestries. It is possible to visit the Royal Manufacturers at fixed times.
Watchmaker's Museum
The Watchmakers' Museum is a museum with a difference. The Op de Beeck family restores antique clocks and watches and over the centuries has amassed a large collection of timepieces dating from 1600 to the present day. The collection contains extraordinary tower clocks, mystery clocks, sundials and much much more. To find out just how much more, you'll have to pay a visit to this atmospheric museum! You can even have a guided tour. But keep an eye on the time!
The Mad Art Collection
This historical building houses a museum with a permanent collection of sixteenth-century paintings. What makes the collection unique is that each painting contains a satirical and moralizing reference to 'madness'. There are paintings in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel and Brouwer illustrating reprehensible behaviour and the appropriate punishment. You'll have fun trying to work out the meaning of all the symbols.
Tower Clock Workshop Michiels
Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, De Clippel was uptown Mechelen's foremost inn. However, it took on a very different role in 1890 when Edward Michiels set up one of Belgium's most advanced tower clock workshops here. Numerous eighteenth-century features have survived inside the building and the impressive hall with arched stairway still contains its authentic nineteenth-century furnishings. The tower clock workshop is in the garden at the back. Countless mechanical tower clocks and carillons have been repaired here, old mechanisms restored and modern, electronic tower clocks made.