Tournai - Natural History Museum

(Local Name: Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in der Abbaye Saint-Martin) From the belfry Rue Saint-Martin leads west and from it an archway opens into the courtyard of the Abbey of Saint-Martin (1642-1701), founded in the 11th C., the largest Benedictine abbey in Belgium before the French Revolution. In one wing is accommodated the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle (Natural History Museum) which is principally notable for a fine collection of birds; the palace of the abbots, a work of Dewez from 1743, is now the headquarters of the town administration.