Musee de la Photographie

The Museum of Photography occupies a neo-Gothic Carmelite convent of 1855 in a suburb of Charleroi, extended in 2008 with a large glass and steel wing, and it holds a collection of some eighty thousand prints and several hundred thousand negatives, which makes it one of the larger photography museums in Europe. The permanent display runs through the history and the technique of the medium from the earliest processes, with cameras and equipment, and the temporary programme is substantial, with several exhibitions running at once across the convent cells, the cloister and the new wing. The combination of a nineteenth-century religious building and a modern gallery works better than it sounds, and the cells suit small hangs.

What you actually see

• Eighty thousand prints - one of the largest photographic collections in Europe.
• Convent cells used as galleries - small hangs in the nineteenth-century rooms.
• The 2008 glass wing - the modern extension for large exhibitions.
• Historic cameras and processes - the technical history displayed.

When to go

Year round; it is indoors. Two to three hours. Closed Mondays. Several exhibitions run simultaneously and change through the year, so the content varies considerably.

Honest expectations

It is in a suburb and needs a bus from Charleroi. Interpretation is largely in French. The permanent display is smaller than the temporary programme. Charleroi itself has a poor reputation and the surroundings are unappealing.

Nearby

Bois du Cazier is nearby; Charleroi centre is north.