JoeTro

I am going to be in Brussels next week for 3 days (an itinerary plan will follow in a later posting for review)and I have a number of Churches written down as sights from several guidebooks. I was wondering if anyone could offer advise as to ones I could definitely miss and others that I should see for sure, as I don't think I'll be able to fit them all in.

Some of my notes were very cryptic ... my apologies:

St Nicholas Church
St Michaels Cathedral
Church Notre Dame (in Laken; suburb?)
St. Catherine Church
St Jean Baptiste Church
Church ND de Chapelle
Eglise ND de Sablon 9 – 6:30
Basitique Sacred Heart (in suburb)

Thank you!

BTilke

Much as I like Brussels, I just never found the churches there particularly memorable compared to, for example, churches/cathedrals in France, Germany, Italy, UK, or Austria. Your travels in town will probably take you to the Sablon, so try that one. They're doing quite a nice job cleaning it up. I've been to concerts at St. Catherine's, again nothing particularly outstanding that I can recall. I don't think it's worth your limited time to go all the way to Laeken or the Basilique Sacre Coeur (they're not really in suburbs, but not in the heart of Brussels). Just my opinion, though--others may have found something special about the churches on your list.

sheila

There is a particularly splendid baroque church just of Saint Catherine's, the name of which is presently escaping me, but I have it at home and will add it later. It was the church of the Beguine women.

BTilke

It's not Minimes is it? (Minimes is closer to the Sablon than to St. Catherine's).

sheila

No, I found it. It's the Eglise Saint Jean-Baptiste

http://www.brucity.be/artdet.cfm?id=837&nLanguage=1