8 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. 

Any visit to Brussels should include a visit here, if only to understand Belgium's difficult relationship with its own past. While much of its collection is invaluable from a scholarly point of view, it came at an incalculable cost, rooted in Leopold II’s brutal colonial rule. Even the building itself, built for Leopold II's 1897 Exposition trumpeting his violent success in the Congo Free State (1885–1908), commemorated the names of those Belgians who died there, etched into its very walls; nothing on the 10 million Congolese estimated to have died under Belgian rule. It reopened in 2018 with less emphasis on explorers and stuffed wildlife (though there is still some). The new version focuses more on Congolese voices and accurately reflecting the horrific consequences of Belgium’s colonial rule (1908–62) of a country 76 times its own size. 

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 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.

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.

In 1835, Belgium established the first steam passenger railway on mainland Europe—it connected Brussels and Mechelen—and it was one of the first to establish a national railway network. Train World pays full homage to this illustrious railway history. Located in the hangars of Belgium's oldest functioning station, Schaerbeek, it contains 20 full-size locomotives, many of which you can clamber aboard and explore.