Presumably in the 13th century a rich family from Bruges received the monopoly to levy taxes on gruit and built a structure to store it.

[2] The museum displays both the interior of a house of a rich family as it would have been in the late Middle Ages and a collection of everyday tools and utensils.

On display are furniture, bobbin lace, objects in gold and silver, weapons, musical instruments, and ceramics.

The most famous object in the collection is the painted terracotta bust of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor from 1520, attributed to Conrat Meit.

[4] The museum regularly holds exhibitions, such as "Masterpieces of Bruges Tapestry" in 1987 and "Love and Devotion" in 2013, centered on the Gruuthuse manuscript.