63 Best Sights in Brussels, Belgium

Beguinages were where unmarried women could dedicate themselves to God without taking the orders of a nun (poverty, chastity). This is one of the larger examples in the country, home to some 700 beguines at its peak. Its foundation dates back to 1232, but most of its 72 redbrick houses were built in the 17th century. The last beguine left here in the 1980s; by then, it had already been bought by the university, who set about restoring its houses as accommodation for academics.

At the bustling center of the city is the triangular wedge of the Grote Markt, home to the magnificent St. Peter's Church and Town Hall—some of the most exquisite examples of the Brabantine late-Gothic style in Belgium. On one side are the old guild houses, now café-bars. Gaze up to the tips of their gabled roofs and you'll spy elaborate decorations, from dancing girls to sailing ships, that lend a clue to their former masters. On the other side is the Tafelrond, formerly a theater that was destroyed in 1817. This was rebuilt in the Gothic style as a bank; now it's a boutique hotel that was due to reopen around the time of writing.

About 8 km (5 miles) south of Beersel, you'll encounter the wilderness area of Hallerbos. It's known locally as "the blue forest" for good reason: come mid-April and early May, the ground underneath becomes a dazzling carpet of blue-violet flowers, as bluebells cover every inch. It's a small window of opportunity, though it's a pleasant spot to wander at any time of year. To get there, take the train from Beersel to Halle, then either hire a bike at the station ( www.blue-bike.be) and cycle or take the R55 bus.

Having had its exterior restored to its original glory in late 2024, visitors can now fully soak up this relic of the Art Nouveau era. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage site spanning four town houses across the city designed by the architect Victor Horta, Solvay was built for a chemistry magnate in 1894, and it exhibits a wonderful mix of wooden flourishes and stained glass that was the calling card of its designer, and so reflective of Belgium's take on Art Nouveau. A 40-minute self-guided tour takes you through its creation.

Having soft-opened in fits and starts over the past few years, the transformation of the glass-and-steel behemoth that used to be the old Citroen showroom into a sprawling cultural center is an ambitious one. Though still undergoing renovation at the time of writing, its 69-foot-high windows will certainly make an incredible exhibition space when it fully opens in late 2025, and its collection of modern and contemporary Belgian art promises much. It's a welcome new cultural hub alongside the canal, with a program of events that already includes music, dance, readings, poetry, and more.

The Royal Library of Belgium's (KBR) museum is dedicated to the manuscript collection of the Burgundian dukes. It is also getting a makeover for 2025, with a new section on Gregorian chants adding a musical element to visits. It's much anticipated, as this is one of the unsung gems of the city, having only opened back in 2020. So fragile is its 600-year-old collection that books are swapped out every six months to avoid the light damaging their exquisite illuminations. Weapons, jewelry, and paintings from the era flesh out the exhibits. You'll also find regular free lunchtime classical concerts in the library's fourth-floor music room.

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, it is 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 specific Saturdays and Sundays (see website), is a wonderful example of the Art Nouveau aesthetic.

This historic building only reopened to the public in 2023, but the clincher is that it is one of architect Victor Horta's more dazzling creations, in a city littered with them. A UNESCO-listed early-20th-century town house, it now holds four exhibition spaces that delve into the history and impact of the Art Nouveau movement. Self-guided visits are available on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

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. Permanent exhibitions chart 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.

Having opened its doors in 2023, this elegant town house was built in 1902 by Jules Brunfaut and remains a jewel of the era, mixing beaux arts and Art Nouveau styles. Exhibitions explore the art movements of the fin de siècle era, with a permanent exhibit on the Belgian Art Nouveau period. Look out for the themed guided tours on the first Thursday of the month.

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 exhibits 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 that has been threatened with closure for years, yet it is still defiantly standing. Draw your own metaphors.

A number of immersive sights have popped up in the city in recent years, blending digital art and Instagram-friendly settings. This part-hologram, part-theater, part-storytelling museum is a bit different and is certainly the most creative. It aims to tailor the experience to each person, as you whittle down your "spirit animal" across seven rooms. We'll spare you too many details because going in slightly blank makes it all the more fun.

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 money 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 forms of payment 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Founded in 1882, this is one of the last remaining original lambic breweries in Belgium. Lambic beers require a special kind of brewing that uses spontaneous fermentation. This relies on a certain kind of microflora found in only a few areas: the Pajottenland region, the Zenne Valley, and Brussels. Whether you have acquired the taste (and it is an acquired taste) for the gueuze and kriek beers it produces, it's still a fascinating process. This brewery sadly closed in 2002, when its classic tiled Beerhuis (bar) became a flower shop. A few years later, however, it was bought by new owners and reopened, with its old bar (Thursday–Sunday) starting up again in 2022. English-language tours of the brewery are organized on Saturday (noon and 5 pm), lasting around 45 minutes plus a tasting session.

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 to 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 Congo Free State, which didn't even have the slim political protection of being a Belgian colony at the time—international condemnation eventually forced the King to make it one in 1908. In preparation for the exposition, he built the Koloniënpaleis (Colonial Palace), which now hosts the Royal Museum for Central Africa; he also 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 (507 acres) 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.

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.

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 lastly 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.