Liège
South of Liège's centre, this excellent gallery hosts many high-profile temporary exhibitions but always shows elements of its own fabulous art collection…
Must-see attractions in Belgium
West Flanders
Veurne’s main church is the delicately spired St-Walburgakerk, a spacious, heavily buttressed affair containing much-revered relics. The skull of St…
Northwest Belgium
For cycle-racing enthusiasts the name Geraardsbergen is inextricably linked with the 'Muur' (Mur de Grammont in French), a steep cobbled rise that…
West Flanders
Around 8km south of Veurne, the late-16th-century Kasteel Beauvoorde is an intact, picture-perfect (though tiny by castle standards), four-storey moated…
Centrum De Ronde van Vlaanderen
Northwest Belgium
Fans of the Tour of Flanders (De Ronde) – and lovers of cycling in general – shouldn't miss this state-of-the-art museum, featuring displays on the…
Belgian Coast
Visits walk you through a genuine 19th-century fisherman’s cottage, teaching you about fish quotas and fishermen’s superstitions, then send you and your…
The Ardennes
The scenery west of Bouillon reaches a memorable climax at Rochehaut, where a long balcony surveys a glorious view down across a perfect river curl…
Belgian Coast
Located about 7km from Knokke-Heist's main strip, this excellent modern museum focuses on the period between 1940 and 1944 when the Zwin region was…
Bruges
The western end of the stadhuis morphs into the Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed. The basilica takes its name from a phial supposedly containing a few drops…
Ypres
Dominating the Grote Markt, the enormous reconstructed Lakenhalle is one of Belgium’s most impressive buildings. Its 70m-high belfry has the vague…
Bruges
The beautiful 1420 stadhuis features a fanciful facade that’s second only to Leuven’s for exquisitely turreted Gothic excess. Inside, an audioguide…
Antwerp
Combining the impressive 17th-century houses of artist Frans Snijders and of Antwerp lawyer, mayor and Rubens-patron Nicolaas Rockox, this recently…
Antwerp
As is the case with every great Flemish city, Antwerp’s medieval heart is a classic Grote Markt (market square). Here the triangular, pedestrianised space…
Brussels
Brussels is well endowed with outlying forests and parklands, but in the inner city it's a different story. The largest central patch of greenery is Parc…
Brussels
The beautifully presented Magritte Museum holds the world’s largest collection of the surrealist pioneer’s paintings and drawings. Watch his style develop…
Brussels
About 200m uphill from Place du Grand Sablon, this charming little garden is ringed by 48 bronze statuettes representing the medieval guilds. Standing…
Brussels
In the old Bruxellois dialect, zinneke means ‘a person of mixed origins’, which sums up the city’s inhabitants to this day. Hence Flemish sculptor Tom…
Brussels
The Bourse is Belgium’s 1873 stock-exchange building. It's closed to visitors, but you can enjoy its grandiose neoclassical facade, which is brilliantly…
Brussels
The Jewish Museum hosts good temporary photography exhibits and a permanent collection relating to Jewish life in Belgium and beyond, with a section on…
Brussels
In one of the most distinctive Marolles murals, slinky chanteuse Josephine, with a leopard on a lead, shakes hands with a rotund monk. Behind, both in the…
Église St-Jean-Baptiste au Béguinage
Brussels
This soaring 1657 Flemish baroque masterpiece was designed by Luc Fayd’Herbe, a student of Rubens. It’s often cited as Belgium’s most beautiful church and…
Brussels
The archers' guildhall features a golden phoenix rising from the ashes, which signifies the rebirth of the Grand Place after its bombardment by the French…
Brussels
The lovely butchers' guildhall, featuring a carved swan above the door, hosted Karl Marx in 1847. Ironically, it’s now home to the Grand Place's finest…
Brussels
The city's striking modern library is a beautifully designed space, containing a small museum about books and printing, and a top-floor cafeteria.
Brussels
An 1893 house was designed by prominent art nouveau architect Paul Hankar (1859–1901) as his own studio.
Wallonia
Nestled in a pretty wooded dell are these extensive, ivy-clad ruins. Once one of Belgium’s biggest monastic complexes, Villers was never rebuilt after the…
Northeast Belgium
Some 12km northwest of Mechelen, this haunting, moated prison-fort was built in 1906. However, its use as a notorious Nazi internment camp in WWII is the…
Bruges
Within the so-caled Adornesdomein estate is one of Bruges’ oddest churches, the 15th-century Jeruzalemkerk, built by the Adornes family. Supposedly based…
Ghent
Once the country’s biggest abbey, St-Pieters was the original centre around which Ghent grew. Its fabulous wealth evaporated after French revolutionary…
Wallonia
For 22 days in 1940 the Nazi leader commanded Western Front operations from forest here, 8km south of Couvin. The chalet where he lived has been…
Wallonia
Within this lofty, airy, 15th-century Gothic church you'll find the golden reliquary of Ste-Waudru (hanging above the altar) and the fanciful 1782 Car d…
Wallonia
Sitting in an artificial lake within a vast manicured park, the Château de Belœil is a regal country palace-house that's packed with classical furniture…
Ostend
The gripping Atlantikwall is a remarkably extensive complex of WWI and WWII bunkers, gun emplacements and linking brick tunnels created by occupying…
Wallonia
Opposite the church and tourist office on the main road in Waterloo itself, this former inn is where Wellington stayed before the battle. The museum,…
The Ardennes
The very picturesque Château de Reinhardstein was built in 1354 and restored to archetypal fortress appearance in 1969. Entry is by 75-minute guided tours…
Wallonia
This sizeable complex occupies a mine site where a horrific accident killed 262 miners in 1956. A gripping multilingual video commemorates that; admission…
Namur
In its later guises, the fortress moved the majority of its key installations underground. Fascinating visits, by tour only, walk you through some 500m of…
