The city museum in Leuven was once a creaky cabinet of curiosities known as Museum Vander Kelen-Mertens. It is now called M. Simple as that.
In 2010, architect Stéphane Beel brilliantly transformed the museum and the former city library next door into a stunning contemporary art venue.
The building incorporates a kids’ area, a café run by local bookshop Barboek and a rooftop terrace. The curators put on interesting temporary exhibitions as well as displaying paintings and religious sculptures in a series of intriguing spaces where modern works are hung next to Old Masters.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
