The idea for an outdoor display of oriental buildings, open to the public on the site, originated with King Leopold II, who had been particularly impressed by the "Tour du Monde" panorama at the Paris World Exhibition of 1900. The French architect Alexandre Marcel was commissioned in 1901 to build a Japanese pagoda (known as a Tō). It was inaugurated in 1905. The Pagoda stands nearly tall, across the road from the rest of the museum buildings.