Sights in Brussels
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Église Ste-Catherine
Built by Joseph Poelaert, who designed Brussels’ Palais de Justice, the 19th-century Church of Ste- Catherine occupies the centre of this quarter. Its blackened façade is pretty scruffy, as is the open-air urinal against the western side, screened by a metallic forest-green fence.
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Hôtel Hannon & Contretype Photographic Gallery
If you’re into photographic art you might want to catch an exhibition here. Even if you’re not, it’s worth stopping by for the splendid Art Nouveau building in which it’s housed, Hôtel Hannon, designed in 1902 by Jules Brunfaut and graced by stone friezes and stained glass.
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Belfort
The symbol of Bruges is its Unesco-listed 13th-century belfry, rising a lofty 83m above the main square, Markt. Ascending the 366 steps brings you past the treasury, a triumphal bell and a 47-bell, manually operated carillon which still regularly chimes across the city.
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Musée du Cinéma
In a wing of the BOZAR cultural centre, Brussels’ cinema museum is due to have reopened. You can browse through archives and memorabilia, but the real highlight are the silent films screened at its cinema, accompanied by a live pianist. Check the website for updates.
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Maison St-Cyr
The haunting façade of this narrow building is an extravagance of knotted and twisted ironwork. It was built in 1903 for the painter Léonard St-Cyr by Gustave Strauven (1878-1919), who worked as an apprentice to Horta and also built Art Nouveau houses in Schaerbeek.
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Musée BELvue
Inside this former royal residence, you can take a chronological audio-guided tour through Belgium’s history from independence to today, brought to life by exhibits and snippets of film footage. In summer, the on-site restaurant sets up tables in the charming garden.
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Bourse
The Belgian Stock Exchange occupies a grandiose neoclassical edifice from 1873. The cream façade is festooned with friezes and sculptures of exotic fruits, reclining nudes, lunging horses and a multitude of allegorical figures. One of the statues is by Rodin.
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Les Samedis du Cinéma
Hanging to see the latest blockbuster? Drop the kids off at Les Samedis du Cinéma, a supervised kid's screening (around €2.50) organised every Saturday morning at 09:00 by the UGC De Brouckère cinema, and join other parents catching an adult film.
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Le Botanique
Le Botanique, on the edge of St-Josse, hosts Francophone theatre productions, exhibitions and concerts in an impressive neoclassical building from 1826. The building was originally the greenhouse of the city’s botanic gardens, Jardin Botanique.
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Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (MuHKA)
Contemporary art from 1970 to today provokes and sometimes shocks in this converted grain silo and warehouse in ‘t Zuid. Alongside permanent collections, the museum has four major temporary exhibitions featuring local and international artists each year.
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Aquatopia
If you find yourself in Antwerp on a wet day with toey kids to entertain, this engaging marine theme park, with 10,000 fish in one million litres of water and lots of hands-on activities, will help assuage cries of ‘I’m booored!’. Final entry is at 5pm.
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Walibi & Aqualibi
Walibi & Aqualibi combines a theme park and water park, located about 20km southeast of Brussels off the E411 to Namur. Roller coasters, wave makers and pools make this a big day out. Closing hours vary depending on the month, so phone for details.
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Musée des Sciences Naturelles
Colossal skeletons of iguanodon dinosaurs that roamed the land some 135 million years ago, found in a Belgian coal mine in 1878, are displayed in their 10m-high fossilised glory in this newly renovated and highly absorbing Museum of Natural Sciences.
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St-Carolus Borromeuskerk
Tucked away on a charming square, this beautiful baroque church was completed in 1621. Rubens designed the façade, tower and decorative sculptures, though sadly an 18th-century fire destroyed dozens of paintings produced by the master and his studio.
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Palais de Justice
Impossible to miss (it’s larger than St Peter’s in Rome), this immense 1879-built law court was designed by Joseph Poelaert to reflect the temples of the Egyptian Pharaohs. There are sweeping views over Brussels from the viewing platform out front.
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Autoworld
Prior to WWII, Belgium had a thriving auto industry and this coolest of car collections is its legacy. On display are some 400 vehicles (Model T Fords, Citroen 2CVs and much more, through to the 1970s), housed in a stunning 1880 steel structure.
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Musée des Enfants
Musée des Enfants is basically a big old mansion that's morphed into an indoor playground. Kids (aged three to nine) can paint, plant a garden, explore a space capsule, bake biscuits and more. It's very popular, particularly on wet days.
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Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk
Flanked by a 118m-high tower, the 13th-century Welcome Church of Our Lady harbours some exceptional art, such as Michelangelo’s marble Madonna and Child (1504), which was the only one of his works to leave Italy during his lifetime.
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Dr Guislain Museum
Anyone unnerved by One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest should avoid it – this former psychiatric hospital, northwest of the city centre, showcases some chilling forms of treatment, and also features a collection of art by ‘outsiders’.
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Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire
Antiquities and artefacts from non-European civilisations are the highlights of the Royal Museums of Art and History (including sections set up for the visually impaired), contrasted by comprehensive coverage of European decorative arts.
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Scientastic Museum
Kids aged six and over may yet think science is fun after a couple of hours at this interactive museum, where they can make their voice mimic a duck, ‘fly’ using mirrors and enjoy other sensory pursuits. A winner for rainy days.
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Jeanneke Pis
Squatting just off Rue des Bouchers, this pigtailed female counterpart of Manneken Pis is the work of sculptor Denis Adrien Debouvrie, who installed her here in 1985, though she’s usually partly obscured by locked iron gates.
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Église Notre Dame du Sablon
Built by a guild of crossbow enthusiasts at the start of the 14th century, this late-Gothic church sees sunlight streaming in through its stained-glass windows and on to its baroque chapels and intricately sculpted pulpit.
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Berlaymont (European Commission)
Although the 1967-built, star-shaped Berlaymont building that houses the European Commission isn’t open to the public, the information panels outside give a succinct overview of the EU and its role in the European capital.
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Parc des Expositions
The Parc des Expositions is a trade fair complex built in the 1930s to commemorate a century of independence. The major building here is Palais du Centenaire, an Art Deco piece featuring terraced tiers capped by statues.
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