Its construction started in 1757 to serve as the residence of the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, replacing the Palace of Orange-Nassau.

Its construction coincided with the completion of the first section of the Rue de la Régence/Regentschapsstraat, which ended temporarily at the foot of the Church of Our Lady of Victories at the Sablon.

Until 1878, the Brussels Salon, a periodic exhibition of work by living artists, took place in the former apartments of Charles Alexander of Lorraine.

In 1851, the exhibition was held in a temporary construction in the courtyard, before returning to its traditional location until 1881, when the first rooms of the new Museum of Fine Arts could be used.

Even the new wing, built at the rear of the Museum of Fine Arts by the architect E. Willame in 1879, to enclose the courtyard, was taken over by the administration and the numismatics cabinet of the Royal Library.

[7] The Palace of Charles of Lorraine counts five halls, each decorated in stucco and silk, whose interiors are reminiscent of the Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège in the 18th century.

An impressive staircase, adorned with a statue of Hercules sculpted by the Flemish sculptor Laurent Delvaux, leads up to the first-floor rotunda.

[3] The rotunda's paving includes a central rosette made up of 28 types of Belgian marble, a sample of the Prince's collection of 5,000 minerals.

[8] Erected in 1848 at the centre of the Place du Musée, the statue of Charles Alexander of Lorraine was part of a series of sculptural works honouring great figures of Belgian history.

Originally designed for Brussels Park, then for the Place Royale/Koningsplein, it had been ordered to the sculptor Louis Jehotte, also author of a statue of Charlemagne in Liège (Wallonia).