COVER N. 476 - BELGIUM

Postmark: Beernem 8730 06.06.24

Posted on the 6th June; received on the 13th June 2024

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It is not that often that i get mail from Belgium, so this latest cover from the epicentre of the EU was more than welcome, especially since as usual, Guy, kindly sent me some quite appreciated extras. Hartelijk dank, Guy!

Belgium, and especially Brussels,  is full of great museums and all I've visited were absolutely outstanding, be it the  royal fine arts museum or the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History, especially the aviation department, which holds an incredible aircraft collection, spanning the full length of aviation's history.

Belgium was once a colonial power too. so it comes as no surprise that a museum dating back from the last decade of the  19th century, would have been created to highlight what was then regarded  as a synonym of power and greatness.

Belgium hosting the  Exposition Internationale de Bruxelles in 1897, King Leopold II decided this would be a great opportunity to let the colonial might of the court in what was then the Belgian Congo be shown to his peers and so an exhibition was mounted in the purpose built Palais des Colonies, at Tervuren, in  the outskirts of Brussels.  This would in time evolve to a fully dedicated museum that has, of course, evolved in concept and purpose, but still occupies the same palace where the original exhibition was held, being nowadays called Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale (AfricaMuseum, for short), its original designation being Musée Royal du Congo Belge.

In 2013 he museum closed for renovation, the works being carried on up to 2018, when it opened again to the general public.

Celebrating this fact Poste Belge issued on 11JUN2018 a souvenir sheet comprising 5 Tariff 1 Europe stamps, the background of four of them illustrated with African handicraft artefacts  and one with a photo of the museum buildings. The main image on the stamps though is  the logo of the Africa Museum, the characters that make out the word Africa, being highlighted on each of the stamps, as is visible in the stamp on the cover in wherein the letter R is substantially enlarged in comparison with the other letters that make out the work Africa.

Judging from the Postmark, the cover was posted at Beernem, a city in West Flanders with a population of around 14,600 inhabitants.