[2] The Halle Gate is located on Boulevard du Midi/Zuidlaan, just south of the Marolles/Marollen neighbourhood, between the City of Brussels and Saint-Gilles municipalities.

[2] The gate was renamed for the city of Halle (French: Hal), now located in Flemish Brabant, which it faces.

As with the rest of the city's fortifications, the Halle Gate and Monterey Fort were ineffective, and were not able to prevent the French bombardment of Brussels in 1695, from the heights of Scheut, in Anderlecht, as part of the War of the Grand Alliance.

From 1868 to 1871, as the city was being modernised, the architect Henri Beyaert, with little regard for historical accuracy, transformed the austere medieval tower into something of a neo-Gothic castle, which fit better with the contemporary romantic perception of the Middle Ages.

In front of the inner gate, facing the City of Brussels, Beyaert added a circular tower topped by a large conical roof, containing a monumental spiral staircase.

[1] The collections included diplomatic gifts, mementoes and curiosa owned by the Dukes of Burgundy and subsequently the Habsburg archdukes, and which had been placed, until then, in various locations in Brussels.

The collection includes the parade armor of Archduke Albert of Austria, Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands in the 17th century.

The main parts of the museum, each on a separate floor, are: The Halle Gate was represented, around 1565–1568, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in his painting The Wine of Saint Martin's Day.