On Heritage Day 2026, KBR invites young and old to discover heritage from its most playful side. This year’s edition is all about humour: laughter, wonder and a touch of mischief through the centuries.
During your visit, you will discover that people in the Middle Ages and the early modern period enjoyed jokes just as much as we do today. Medieval manuscripts teem with funny figures, bizarre animals and absurd scenes, while texts and plays reveal how humour could connect, challenge and amuse.
On the occasion of Heritage Day, the KBR museum is free to visit. In addition, KBR is organising a number of free activities for families, curious visitors and heritage lovers. Places are limited: advance booking is recommended.
Open workshop – Create your own medieval meme
Feeling creative? In this open workshop, you draw inspiration from the humorous margins of medieval manuscripts and create your own medieval meme. Using colours, pens and ink, humour and imagination come together in an activity that is fun for both children and adults.
Lecture – Lachen vóór de Verlichting: humor in het vroegmoderne Europa (NL)
What did people find funny in the past? And where was the line between laughter, satire and seriousness? In this accessible lecture, researcher Lieke Stelling takes you into the world of humour before the Enlightenment, with surprising examples that show laughter is truly timeless.
Lecture – De la drôlerie gothique au « mèmediéval » : rire au Moyen Âge (FR)
Why did medieval images make people laugh, and why do they still amuse us today? In this lecture, researcher Julia Pineau explores gothic drolleries—playful and sometimes absurd figures in the margins of medieval manuscripts—and shows how medieval humour continues to resonate, from scholarship to internet memes.
