Belgium National Bank Museum

The National Bank of Belgium was established to control inflation and deflation and establish a national currency in Belgium.  This room is the original entrance into the bank and is very ornate.

There are tapestries on the walls representing the 6 major Belgian cities - this one is Brussels and is of the street just in front of the bank.  It shows the bank on the right and St. Michels Cathedral on the right - in the haze of the background you can see the spire of the Hotel de Ville on the Grand Place.

The ceiling of this ornate room.

There is an entire room dedicated to showing the history of money in Europe - the thing that most fascinated us was learning that the pictures on today's Euros (which sometimes make you think, "why'd they put that there?") have come from pictures used on money in the past here!

There were many other rooms showing information about lots of money related issues - markets, making money, what happens to "old" money, and so on.  Our favorite was a movie for kids about inflation and deflation - we learned that the National Bank establishes controls to keep the market steady, but they showed this by putting a red "inflation monster" into one jar and a blue "deflation monster" into another jar and demonstrated controlling each one by shaking the jar of the appropriate one based on the story - if only it were that easy!

The architect of the building - Beyaert - put a little touch of himself into his building.  That is him with Casey and Alex.  He's looking down over a railing that used to look over a large ornate main staircase (but now has a floor over the stairs - would have loved to seen the entire staircase!)

I think he would have been an interesting guy to meet!