At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, illustrated postcards experienced an unprecedented boom in circulation: produced by the millions, circulating on a global scale, and accessible to a wide public, they constituted one of the first truly mass visual media. As standardized visual documents, they represent an exceptional source for analyzing and comparing the ways in which urban modernity was conceived and represented, but they also shed light on the staging strategies of cities during a period of profound economic, social, and spatial transformations. The Académie Royale de Belgique proposes an exhibition based on its collection of postcards, covering all Belgian cities and municipalities (77,000 postcards in total). The primary emphasis will be placed on Brussels, allowing for an appreciation of the evolution of the capital's urban landscapes between the Belle Époque and the beginning of the third millennium.