Ostend museums open on Friday
Worth a detour from Brussels
Ostend has been begun again twice: the three-year siege of 1601–1604 left nothing of the old town, and Leopold II built a royal seaside resort in its place, with galleries along the dyke. No museum quarter grew up here. The art collection is in the centre, the Atlantic Wall batteries are at Raversijde on the western edge, and the Napoleonic fort is across the harbour. Much on this list is not a collection at all: at the fort, at the batteries in the dunes, on the sailing ship it is the building and the place one looks at.
| Museum | Rating | Address | Today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mu.ZEE | Venetian Galleries (Venetiaanse Gaanderijen), Parijsstraat 2, at the corner of the sea dyke | 10:00–17:30 | |
| The Atlantic Wall at Raversyde | Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 636 | 10:30–17:00 | |
| Fort Napoleon | Vuurtorenweg 13 | 10:00–18:00 | |
| The James Ensor House | Vlaanderenstraat 29 | 10:00–18:00 | |
| The Ostend City Museum | Langestraat 69 | 10:00–12:00, 13:30–18:00 | |
| The sailing ship Mercator | Jachthaven, Jan Piersplein | 10:00–17:00 |
The rating here is our own — the judgement of those who compile this catalogue. It speaks of what a museum is worth coming for: where there is a collection, of the collection; where there is none, of the building, the ensemble or the monument and of what is shown in their rooms. Neither a queue in the street nor a loud name enters into it.
- In the same rank as the world's leading museums.
- Worth a visit made for its own sake.
- There is something here worth coming for.
- It answers those who come for the subject itself.
- Valued by a narrow circle and unrecognised beyond it.
- underrated
- Worth more than its reputation: fewer people know it than it deserves
- one of a kind
- There is no counterpart — not in the country, not anywhere
- read first
- Without reading beforehand it reads as ornament; with it, the whole thing opens
- quiet here
- No crowds: you can look at your own pace and on your own
Checked on 19 August 2026 — against museum sites and open sources. Each entry carries its own date and its own note of what it was checked against. A price we could not confirm we mark as unconfirmed; the previous one does not stay in the entry.
How long — for the most important things, along our minimum route. The café, the shop and the queue at the cloakroom are not counted. Going round the whole museum almost always takes longer.
The photographs are taken from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and the licence stand under each.
18 May — International Museum Day, kept since 1977; on the night of 17 to 18 May, the Night of Museums. On those days museums keep a special timetable and admission is often free.
Every figure and date on these pages has been checked by us. Write to us if a museum has changed its hours or its prices, if a link has died, or if a museum is missing from the list. We will correct it and set a new date of checking.