Cinquantenaire Museum

The Mundaneum, aimed to gather together all the world''s knowledge and classify it according to a system, was an initiative of Paul Otlet and Henri la Fontaine in 1910.

This "city of knowledge", which Otlet originally named the "Palais Mondial" ("World Palace") would serve as a central repository for the world''s information. In 1919, soon after the end of World War I, they convinced the government of Belgium to give them the space and funding for this project, arguing that it would help Belgium bolster its bid to house the League of Nations headquarters. They were given space in the left wing of the Palais du Cinquantenaire.

The Mundaneum steadily grew to 13 million index cards in 1927; by its final year, 1934, it had reached over 15 million.

In 1939, when Germany invaded Belgium, the Germans forced Otlet and his colleagues to find a new home for the Mundaneum. It moved to a building in the Leopold Park.

Dromos