61 Best Sights in Brussels, Belgium

Art Nouveau architect Paul Cauchie built this house for himself in 1905, using the facade as a virtual shop window for his sgraffito expertise. Sgraffito work begins with a light-color base layer; a darker color is added on top, and then, while the paint is still wet, etched with a design that allows the lighter color underneath to show through. Here, Cauchie covered the front with graceful, curving images of women playing lyres. The home’s interior, only open to the public on guided tours on Saturday (and the first Sunday of the month), is a wonderful example of the Art Nouveau aesthetic.

An art gallery that focuses on Leuven and Flemish Brabant artists from the Middle Ages until the 19th century. Its permanent collection includes the work of sculptor Jef Lambreaux, whose mildly erotic Temple of Human Passions caused such a scandal when it opened in Brussels in 1886, and George Minne, a leading figure from the Latem School of Impressionists who set up their base in the villages south of Ghent. Temporary exhibitions ranging from the Old Masters to more contemporary art mix things up a bit. 

The first house designed in Brussels by the architect Victor Horta (he'd done others in Ghent by this time) was built in 1893 for a friend, Eugene Autrique. It was to have "not a single luxury," and became the first manor house built by Horta, marking his early explorations in Art Nouveau. At the time, Schaerbeek was mostly agrarian, best known for the small, sour cherries used to brew kriek beers—a state almost unimaginable given its current urban sprawl. Having undergone extensive renovation to return it to its original state, the house is now a museum on Horta's early days, and holds the odd exhibition. 

Set within Parc Léopold, this modern museum tackles the political upheavals that shaped Europe. It's essentially a conscience in museum form, lest anyone forget the mistakes of the past, with permanent exhibitions charting the rise of industrialization, the authoritarianism and wars of the early 1900s that saw Europe's crumbling empires and global ambitions stretched to breaking point, and how a fragmented continent slowly drew itself back together. 

Just a short stroll from the Atomium lies this kids' favorite, which is essentially a park full of scale models of important European monuments. The 350 monuments range from the Eiffel Tower to a model of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral that was said to have taken 24,000 hours to build. It's a slightly kitsch selfie wonderland.

For a chronologically and culturally wide-ranging glimpse into the past, the Cinquantenaire Palace building is home to a number of antiquities and ethnographic treasures accumulated over the years. The Egyptian, Grecian, and Byzantine sections are particularly noteworthy and there's a strong focus on home turf, with significant displays on Belgian archaeology and the immense and intricate tapestries for which Brussels was once famous.

Nineteenth-century painter and sculptor Constantin Meunier (1831–1905) made his mark capturing the hardships of Belgian workers in a distinctive, realistic style. Examples of his work are displayed in his former house and studio.

Art from the fringes. Set in an old print house, this museum turns its lens on outsider, naive, and folk art in particular, though you'll find more traditional pieces as well among its rotating collection, 

The irony of a museum about the means of payment being free to visit is lost on no one. It also doesn't stop this being one of the surprise joys of the Brussels museum scene. Exhibits unravel different concepts of money throughout history, from Mesopotamian clay tablets to why you need a moko drum to buy a house on the Indonesian island of Alor. 

No ruler ever lived in the 16th-century Maison du Roi (House of the King); instead, it housed Charles V’s administrative offices, built on the site of Brussels’s old covered marketplace. Then, in the 19th century, it was given a neo-Gothic makeover—all brooding spires and arches. Today, it houses the City Museum, which boasts some fine tapestries and paintings, notably the Marriage Procession by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. You can also see the "original" (1619 version) Mannekin Pis and an impressive 15th-century weather vane that used to top the town hall.

The highlights here are the skeletons of some of the 30 iguanodons found in 1878 in the coal mines of Bernissart, which are believed to be about 120 million years old. It also has a fine collection of stones and minerals numbering in the tens of thousands. But the impressive Gallery of Humankind is worth the trip alone and charts the evolution of the human race to the present day.

While its opening hours are somewhere mercurial, it's worth timing a visit right to ride one of the museum's vintage trams, which date from the 1935 World's Fair. Most visits include a 40-minute ride, though on Sunday between April and September, you can do the four-hour tram tour. The journey, accompanied by a commentary on the city, includes a stop for lunch at Schaerbeek's station, where you'll also find the Train Museum. Alternatively, the Tram Museum has around 90 examples of old horse-drawn carriages, trams, and buses from the late 19th century onward to peruse.  

This museum traces the history of the Jewish faith and the fate of its followers in Belgium. The extensive collection includes religious objects dating from the 16th century, including documents, religious items, and books. In addition, it has hosted some truly excellent temporary exhibitions, ranging from the Jewish influence on superheroes to the work of prominent Jewish artists.

The costume and lace museum pays tribute to Brussels’ textile-making past. Housed in four 17th-century houses and a warehouse, the museum is something of a 17th- to 18th-century fashion show, with accessories, embroidery, and clothes on display, many featuring the delicate lace for which the city once became famous.

The Oldmasters Museum pays special attention to the so-called Flemish Primitives of the 15th century, who revolutionized the art of painting with oil. The Spanish and the Austrians pilfered some of the finest works, but there's plenty left to savor, including works by Memling, Petrus Christus, Rogier van der Weyden, and Hieronymus Bosch. The collection of pieces by Pieter Bruegel the Elder is particularly eye-catching; it includes The Fall of Icarus, in which the figure of the mythological hero disappearing in the sea is but one detail of a scene where people continue to go about their business. There are English-language brochures and guided tours available.

As much a love letter to Belgian beer culture as a museum. It was started by one person donating 300 (empty) bottles of Belgian beer, then volunteers sought out all kinds of brewing paraphernalia. Now it has over 2,500 bottles and some 5,000-plus glasses, as well as endless signs, logos, bits of brewing equipment, and relics of breweries long since departed. It's only open two days a week (Wednesday and Saturday), and tickets include a tasting of Schaerbeekoise and Eizelskop beers. 

This workshop-museum began life in 1850 when the painter, sculptor, and writer Antoine Wiertz (1806--65) agreed to leave his collection to the Belgian government before his death. All the more surprising given he was a somewhat controversial figure, drawn to create huge canvases of often shocking subjects, from a naked woman staring down a skeleton, to gruesome accounts of Greek history, and the truly macabre Premature Burial, where a hand is seen clawing its way out of a coffin.

One of the prettiest stretches of parkland in Brussels made all the more welcome for being deep among the residential mélange of Schaerbeek. Its archways of cherry blossoms are particularly enchanting in spring. In summer there are free concerts and Glacier Cocozza, across the road, draws a queue all the way down the road for its ice creams. The park is best known for its Cherry Festival (last Sunday in June) when locals gather to compete in a highly competitive cherry-pit-spitting contest. 

This tranquil park, just next to the EU Quarter, has a strange history of failures. First, it was a poorly maintained 19th-century pleasure garden, then home a zoo in which most of the animals died (its two entrance pavilions date from this era). By the 1930s, thankfully, it found its purpose and became an important scientific library and institute, around which a pair of museums were later added. It's largely peaceful except at lunchtime, when seemingly every corner is invaded by local schoolkids. 

Tervuren Park, once the hunting grounds of the Dukes of Brabant, was the venue for King Leopold II's 1897 Exposition. His aim was to showcase the wealth and "culture" he was tearing out of the then Congo Free State. International condemnation eventually forced him to even make it a colony. In preparation, he built the Koloniënpaleis (Colonial Palace), which now hosts the Royal Museum for Central Africa; and created gardens in the French style. The exposition itself was considered a success, though is now thought to be a stain on Belgian history. It contained a human zoo of Congolese, several of whom died in the crossing to Europe. But the park is more than this dark corner of history—its 205 hectares span a pair of valleys, and for those walking or cycling the trails here, it's the gateway to the northeasternmost reaches of the Forêt de Soigne, a vast forest of boundless trails. 

Set in the Tour & Taxis building on the riverfront, the city's first computer-game museum only opened in 2020. Its collection charts the history of gaming from 1972, the launch of the Odyssey by Magnavox, to the present day, and elicits great waves of nostalgia among those who lived through this era. 

Once nothing more than a sandy hill, "Sand Square" is now an elegant place, surrounded by numerous restaurants, cafés, and antiques shops, some in intriguing alleys and arcades. For a little tranquillity, pop into the beautiful Église Notre Dame du Sablon at the eastern end of the square, a flamboyant Gothic church founded in 1304. It's one of Brussels’s most beautiful churches, and at night its stained-glass windows are illuminated from within to magical effect. Opposite the Grand Sablon, you'll find the pretty garden place du Petit Sablon. It's surrounded by a magnificent wrought-iron fence, topped by 48 small bronze statues representing the city’s guilds.

There's a strong dash of Vienna in this white, symmetrical square, built in the neoclassical style by Brussels's then Austrian overlords. Elegantly proportioned, it is the centerpiece of the Upper Town, which became the center of power during the 18th century. Place Royale was built on the ruins of the palace of the Dukes of Brabant, which had burned down. The site has been excavated, and it is possible to see the underground digs of Coudenberg and the main hall, Aula Magna, where Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, and where, 37 years later, he abdicated to retire to a monastery.

If you find the Grand Place overrun by tourists, come to this square/market, a favorite among locals, who come to shop for necessities and banter with fishmongers (Thursday–Saturday 7–5; Wednesday organic market 7:30–3). At night, the square often has a mobile bar, while the fishmonger serves great seafood (see Restaurants). In the evening the action moves to the old Vismet (fish market), which branches off from the Eglise de Ste-Catherine. A canal used to run through here; it's now reduced to a couple of elongated ponds, but both sides are lined with seafood restaurants, some excellent, many of them overpriced. In good weather, there's waterside dining.

Built in 1381, this gate is a unique remnant of Brussels’s city walls, which tend to reappear in unusual places. (For example, if you continue down nearby rue Haute, you'll spy a huge chunk of wall next to the bowling alley at the crossroads with boulevard de l'Empereur.) In 1847, this gate became one of the first museums in Europe, though it lost its collections to the Cinquantenaire complex in the 1870s. It now has a permanent exhibition on medieval Brussels, and if you climb its 169 steps to the roof, a crenelated walkway affords sweeping views of the neighborhood.

Many streets in central Brussels were widened as part of the preparations for the 1958 World's Fair, but the narrow rue des Bouchers and even narrower Petite rue des Bouchers escaped being demolished after locals complained. The area was given special protection in 1959. As long as you watch out for pickpockets, it's all good-natured fun in one of the livelier areas of the center, where restaurants and cafés stand cheek by jowl, their tables spilling out onto the sidewalks. They often make strenuous efforts to pull you in with huge displays of seafood and game, though the effort they put into the food itself is not as impressive. Stick to the traditionally reliable Aux Armes de Bruxelles (rue des Bouchers 13) and you won't go wrong.

Not far from Meise, the neighboring town of Grimbergen is as famous for its abbey as the beer that (as of 2021) is once again brewed on its grounds. Sadly, like most abbeys in Belgium, visitors aren't welcome, though the Basilica of Saint Servatius is open to the public. It was even one of the few buildings to be spared by the wrath of the French Revolutionary army. The abbey has been destroyed and rebuilt three times in its history: first by the Lords of Grimbergen in 1142, then by Protestants in 1566, and last by the French in 1798. Only the church and rectory survived the last of these, a magnificent Baroque structure with a carillon of 48 bells. 

Few realize "Stella," the pilsner of choice among European soccer fans, is even Belgian, but it traces its Leuven roots back to 1726. These days, it's part of the massive AB InBev company, which owns everything from Budweiser to Leffe. As you'd expect, the brewery is highly automated, making for an interesting gear change to the usual small brewers most beer tours frequent. Two-hour tours and tastings for individuals are held on Saturday from 3 pm (in English), with online booking in advance advised if you want to get a slot. 

Another museum that delves into Belgium's comic-book past, though it does so via the figurines and toys they inspired, displayed in various dioramas. Mostly, it's a selfie-paradise for those who long to have a picture of themselves with a giant Smurf or a cutout of Captain Haddock. And that's no bad thing.