10 Best Sights in Brussels, Belgium

The history of Belgium is one of invasion, and Cinquantenaire Park itself has even played its role. In the dying days of World War II, it was the scene of skirmishes between the Belgian resistance and the German army. Exhibits include uniforms, weaponry, and even Leopold I's camp bed, with items dating from the Middles Ages up until the wars of the 20th century, though English translation can be sporadic. More compelling are the later sections, when suddenly you find yourself (without warning) in a vast hangar of some 50 fighter planes, gliders, cargo craft, and tanks that appear out of nowhere, or reading about the first Belgian expedition in the Antarctic. 

The most picturesque park in the city is a joy in summer when its shaded grassy lawns and paths fill with joggers, picnickers, dance troupes, and even climbers practicing on its walls. It is home to a number of museums as well as the capital's take on the Arc de Triomphe: the Arcade du Cinquantenaire. Pay special attention to the park's northwest corner where you'll find the Great Mosque. This was originally built as an Arabic-style folly for a national exhibition in 1880 but was gifted to King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia to use as a place of worship in 1967, and has remained a mosque ever since. 

A vast collection of vintage automobiles sits in what was originally planned (in the early 1900s) to be a grand exhibition hall. As time rolled on, hosting such fairs proved impractical due to how built-up the area became. These days, the hall makes the perfect showcase, its curved steel-and-glass roof giving the impression of a huge Art Deco garage. Exhibits range from Model T Fords to '50s Americana vehicles. 

The European Union was born in the embers of World War II, as an antidote to the nationalism that had swept Europe and caused such chaos. Its parliament shifts monthly between Strasbourg (France) and Brussels, where it occupies the Paul-Henri Spaak building (rue Wiertz 43). Hour-long audio-guide tours of Parliament and the Hemicycle, the debating chamber where plenary sessions are held, are available on weekdays (book online).  The nearby Parliamentarium visitor center is more accessible and attempts to break down just how the EU works.

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.

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. 

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.

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 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.