The impressive Bordiau Gallery is dedicated to the large 20th century conflicts. A modern set-up shows the last months of the Great War, illustrates the interwar period and focuses on the Second World War. The presentation, unique in Belgium, gives the visitor the opportunity to admire both outfits of great men and personal possessions of anonymous soldiers or civilians.

The Royal Military Museum is to complete the permanent exhibition in the Bordiau Gallery with new presentations about occupied Belgium (1940-1944), the end of the war in Europe (1944-1945), Nazi ideology and race policy (1933-1945) and the war in the Pacific (1937-1945). In that way, the period between 1919 and 1945 will be fully covered.

The hall housing the exhibition about the Second World War is the only remaining part of the project drawn up for the Jubilee Park by Belgian architect Gédéon Bordiau around 1880. All other buildings have indeed been transformed, adapted or demolished. The wing across from the Royal Military Museum, housing the Royal Museums of Art and History, originally was identical. However, shortly after the Second World War, it burnt down and it was replaced by a new construction in the fashion of the day.

Architect Bordiau used traditional building supplies such as granite, and classic elements such as vaults and columns. He nevertheless also integrated “modern” elements such as glass and cast-iron. The two rose windows of course catch the eye.