Musical Instruments Museum, Brussels

The Musical Instruments Museum, universally known by its initials MIM, is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world, gathering thousands of instruments from every continent and era. It is housed in one of the finest Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels, the former Old England department store, an exuberant confection of black iron and glass built in 1899 on the edge of the royal quarter.

The displays run from the ancient to the electronic. Around 1,200 instruments are shown at any time, from medieval lutes and elaborate harpsichords to folk instruments, mechanical music machines and early synthesisers. What sets the museum apart is its audio guide: infrared headphones sense which case you stand before and play a recording of the instrument, so the galleries fill with the sounds of what you are seeing.

The building alone repays a visit. Its curving façades of steel and glass, ornamented with sinuous ironwork, are among the landmarks of the Art Nouveau movement that flourished in turn-of-the-century Brussels, and the interior stairwells and lift preserve the atmosphere of a grand old store.

For visitors the museum charges admission, part of the Royal Museums of Art and History, and sits atop the Mont des Arts near the Place Royale and the fine-art museums, easily combined with them. A café and restaurant on the top floor open onto a terrace with one of the best free views over the lower town and its skyline. Absorbing for music lovers and casual visitors alike, it rewards an unhurried couple of hours. Regular concerts and demonstrations bring the collection to life, and the rooftop terrace, reached without a ticket, is one of the city's finest free vantage points over the spires of the lower town.