Toutes les Machines du Monde
Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg
Click on the photo for each museum to visit our photo page for that museum
Museums are arranged by rating
The Louwman Museum, The Dutch National Auto Museum ★★★★★
The Hague, Netherlands
An absolutely amazing experience! This is a fantastic place combining wonderful display areas with the finest, most varied collection of both restored and original automobiles I’ve seen. Add excellent printed materials in Dutch and English giving detailed histories of the cars on display and you really have something. Add again an amazing collection of photographs blown up and displayed with the cars; not just any photos, but actual pictures of this individual car either in races or with its original owners, and the overall effect is stunning. If that is not enough, there are whole rooms displaying excellent poster art and period advertisements that add a sense of time and place. Not to be missed. We visited the Louwman in 2012, and in 2020 I’ve gone back and reworked all of our photos to take advantage of better software to improve the pictures. As a result I've been able to significantly increase the number of images displayed. Click on the photo to see more information about the collection and to go on to the photo page. Not surprisingly, the museum’s website is also excellent, with full information online for many of the cars.
Mahy Museum, Leuze-en-Hainaut, Belgium ★★★★
We happened upon this fascinating place just wandering along a secondary road in southern Belgium. This is one of the largest one man collections in the world and is most notable for it’s size and breadth. The quality of the restorations and presentation range from original condition to very good. As noted in the comments on the Autoworld collection below, the best of the Mahy cars reside in the National Museum. Nonetheless, at this location you can see many cars that you’ll probably never see anywhere else. As you will see, the museum space is spread among several spaces in a large warehouse building. In the main room, the cars are in excellent shape, while in other areas the cars are in original condition and can be quite dusty. Still, a visit to the Mahy is an interesting and very informative experience. We visited in 2010, but in 2020 I’ve gone back and reworked all of our photos to take advantage of better software to improve the pictures.
Autoworld, The Belgian National Auto Museum, Brussels, Belgium ★★★★
This is the Belgian National Auto Museum. It is housed in the historic exhibit hall in Brussels where the 1906 Grand European Automobile Exhibition was held. The cars that form the basis for the museum’s collection were taken directly from the Mahy Museum in 1986 when the National Museum was formed. The loan of 230 of the cream of the Mahy collection to the national museum allows the original collection to remain open and to work slowly toward completing restoration work on the entire collection. Taken together, the 1,000 car collection housed in these two sites represents an astounding accomplishment by one man. Autoworld appears to be quite active as a look at the museum's website in June 2020, as I work on redoing the photos from our 2010 visit, shows lots of activity involving special exhibits. Thus the cars on display at the time of your visit may be very different from the ones shown here.
Spa Francorchamps Racetrack Museum, Stavelot, Belgium ★★★
www.abbayedestavelot.be/code/en/muse_02.asp
Spa Francorchamps is a famous racetrack with a long history and a dangerous reputation due to its high speed layout. The museum is small, but is housed in an extraordinary old Abby along with other very worthwhile non-racing historical exhibits for the visitor to enjoy. While not an overwhelming automotive experience, It makes for a good excuse to visit the interesting town of Stavelot. We visited the museum in 2010, and in 2020 I have reprocessed the images using new software to improve them.
Conservatoire National de Véhicules Historiques, Diekirch, Luxembourg ★★★
This is a small but very nicely done collection that is indeed the national auto museum of Luxembourg, a similarly small but nicely done country. Diekirch is a lovely little town that also hosts an excellent military museum. Both museums and the town are well worth a visit. We visited this museum in 2010, and in 2020 I have reprocessed the images using new software to improve them.
Laverda Museum, Lisse, The Netherlands ★★★
I visited this museum in Spring 2012, but am sad to have to report that the museum is now closed and the collection has been sold. The museum's website is still active so you can read more about and enjoy photos of this wonderful collection. In 2020 I have reworked and improved these images and leave them posted on this site in honor of the man whose vision and passion created this collection. My original description from the time of my visit is below.
"It would be tempting to say that the most interesting thing about this museum is its location in Holland but that wouldn’t be fair. It is a really fine small museum honoring the Italian motorcycle, Laverda. It is in Holland simply because the man whose passion and dedication created the museum lives there. If you go to The Netherlands you will want to see the tulips and this museum is in the heart of tulip country, just one kilometer down the road from the world famous Keukenhoff Gardens. Hours are by appointment only, generally on the weekends".
