Hieronymus van Busleyden was a wealthy humanist and patron of Erasmus, and his palace — built between 1503 and 1517 — is one of the earliest and finest Renaissance buildings in the Low Countries. It now houses the city museum, which makes very good use of the space.
The collection covers Mechelen at its 16th-century height: the Burgundian court culture under Margaret of Austria, the city's importance as a centre of painting, sculpture, and tapestry, and the Besloten Hofjes — the strange and beautiful enclosed-garden reliquaries made by Beguines in the early 16th century, dense with miniature plants, pearls, and saints in tiny boxes. They are unique to Mechelen and worth the visit on their own.