Must-see attractions in Brussels
Brussels
Larger than St Peter’s in Rome, this 2.6-hectare complex of law courts was the world’s biggest building when it was constructed (1866–83). While the…
Brussels
Brussels’ 25m-tall version of Nelson’s Column is an 1850s monolith topped by a gilded statue of King Léopold I. It commemorates the Belgian constitution…
Brussels
Église Ste-Catherine must be one of the only religious buildings that positively encourages folks to urinate on its walls (there’s a ‘pissoir’ on its…
Brussels
If you're into the shocking or nasty, this museum may appeal. Antoine Wiertz (1806–65) was a Brussels artist bent on painting giant religious canvases…
Brussels
Bruxella 1238 is the scanty remains of a Franciscan convent that was bombarded into ruins in 1695. Most of the site is visible by peeping through the…
Musée Royal de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire
Brussels
Extensive displays of weaponry, uniforms, vehicles, warships, paintings and documentation dating from the medieval period through to Belgian independence…
Brussels
Squatting just off Rue des Bouchers, this pigtailed female counterpart of Manneken Pis is the work of sculptor Denis Adrien Debouvrie, who installed her…
Brussels
Looking east along Rue Royale, your gaze is unavoidably drawn to this very distinctive octagonal 19th-century church in neo-Byzantine style, replete with…
Audrey Hepburn's Childhood Home
Brussels
In 1929, My Fair Lady screen superstar Audrey Hepburn was born to a Dutch mother in Brussels. The exterior of their home has a commemorative plaque.
Brussels
The official residence of the Belgian royal family, this grandly symmetrical palace was acquired by Napoleon for Josephine. It is not open to the public.
Brussels
Boxed in on three sides and incongruously dwarfed by the back of a Novotel Hotel, this tower is an ivy-draped remnant of Brussels’ original city wall.
Brussels
Deceased Belgian royals are laid to rest in the crypt of the splendid, triple-spired stone church of Notre-Dame de Laeken.
Brussels
Surmounted by a tall granite tower topped by a bronze statue of St-Micheal, the fountain commemorates a former mayor.
Brussels
A glass elevator leads from the Palais du Justice down to the earthy Marolles district.
Brussels
Ghastly but gigantic, this is the world’s fifth-largest church and the world’s largest art-deco building. When construction started in 1905 (to celebrate…
Brussels
Set in a handsome mosaiced and tiled former newspaper office right opposite the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, this free museum explores the work of…
Brussels
The European Commission, the EU’s sprawling bureaucracy, centres on the vast, four-winged Berlaymont building. Built in 1967, it’s striking but by no…
Brussels
Brussels’ brewery museum is authentic in the sense that it occupies the basement of the brewers’ guildhall and has some 18th-century brewing equipment…
Brussels
Want to fool your friends that you saw all of Europe? Easy. Just photograph the dozens of 1:25-scale models of the continent’s top monuments at Mini…
Brussels
A lesser sight on the Horta trail, this grand private house was remodelled and extended by the architect in 1893. It displays a rather stuffy collection…
Brussels
The dressmakers' guildhall is now a particularly splendid grand café whose upper-storey rooms (when open) offer fine views across the square.
Brussels
Six 1698 houses sit behind this single palatial facade, reworked in 1882. Had the imperial governor had his way after 1695, the whole square would have…
Brussels
A 1902 statue of city hero Everard ’t Serclaes depicts his reclining corpse. A fairly contemporary ‘tradition’ claims that rubbing the statue will bring…
Brussels
Built in 1725, this chateau is a residence of the Belgian royal family and has been used to house visiting dignitaries. It is not open to the public.
Brussels
There's a white space upstairs with a polished concrete floor, while downstairs sits a small art bookshop.
Brussels
A residence of the Belgian royal family, the eighteenth-century villa is not open to the public.
Brussels
The vaulted 1811 brick, neo-Gothic Au Lion d’Or building bridges a branch of the Senne River.