352 Best Sights in Belgium

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.

In the woods just above the town center, this cave system was carved by the Lomme River, and it maintains a constantly warm temperature. The most remarkable of its many halls is the Salle de Sabat (Hall of the Witches’ Sabbath), which is more than 250 feet high. Visits are by guided tour only (lasting one hour)—tours leave every 45 minutes. While in the area, be sure to take a peek into the adjacent Chapelle de Lorette. Josine de la March, Countess of Rochefort, built this tiny chapel in 1620 in the hope that it would hasten the return of her son—who, so the story goes, had been kidnapped by a monkey, and was returned upon the chapel’s completion.

La Merveilleuse, a cave system discovered in 1904 and filled with numerous remarkably white stalactites, is on Dinant’s left bank, about 490 yards from the bridge, on the road toward Philippeville. Tours depart hourly and a visit takes about 50 minutes.

What do you do when you have a scientific collection so sprawling and disparate that there's no coherent way to display it? This new museum offers an ingenious solution: simply look into how such things are investigated. Sections touch upon "classification," "doubt," "measurement," and other scientific conundrums, explored via formaldehyde-preserved animals, fossils, zoetropes, ancient sites, and even sex surveys.

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.

One relatively recent addition to the dynamic Antwerp skyline is the Port House, home of Antwerp's Port Authority. Located at the northern end of Het Eilandje, the shiny diamond-shape lozenge on stilts actually rests on top of a beautifully restored old fire station. It was designed by renowned architect Dame Zaha Hadid, and completed shortly before her death in 2016. You can only visit the neo-futurist construction by joining a tour (which run irregularly on some Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the first Saturday of each month—see the website or call for available dates), but its stunning exterior appearance has made it a noteworthy showstopper even if you don't go in.

Twenty-eight kilometers (18 miles) east of Liège is Henri-Chapelle, the largest American military cemetery in Belgium. It is the resting place of 7,989 American soldiers who fell in the Battle of the Bulge. The crosses and stelae are arranged in arcs converging on the central monument, which also contains a small museum and provides a striking view over the plateau of Herve. Ceremonies are held here on American Memorial Day in late May.

This place has gobs of atmosphere; it's crammed with more than 400 plaster saints and angels salvaged from old churches. Het Kathedraalcafé is tucked into a tiny street between the Grote Markt and the cathedral and serves traditional, hearty Vlaamse fare with a large selection of Trappist beers. It also has a pleasant terrace.

The Steen is more than 1,000 years old. A 9th-century waterfront fortress, it was built to protect the western frontier of the Holy Roman Empire. It was partially rebuilt 700 years later by Emperor Charles V. You can distinguish the darker, medieval masonry extending midway up the walls from the lighter upper level of 16th-century work. The only survivor of the original waterfront, the Steen was used as a prison for centuries. Today it houses Antwerp's visitor information center, as well as The Antwerp Story, a permanent exhibition that serves as a good introduction for anyone new to the city. Through a series of rooms, interactive multimedia displays give you an overview of Antwerp's people, industry, monuments, and its museums. You can also head up to the roof terrace for a panoramic view.

Head 5 km (3 miles) east from Ypres along the N8, then follow the signs via Canadalaan and Sanctuary Wood to Hill '62, an old-fashioned museum and dusty café. In addition to photographs, weapons, and assorted objects salvaged from the battlefield, the owner has preserved some of the original trenches on his land. They were part of a tunnel complex that stretched from the coast at Nieuwpoort to the French-Swiss border (at least 600 km [400 miles]). The ground is muddy even on sunny days, so you might need boots to inspect them.

North of the river are some fine examples of Gothic and gabled Romanesque houses that escaped the blanket bombing of the city center in the 1940s. Waking maps can be found in the tourism office, or just head to rue Barre Saint-Brice where you can admire prototypes of the Flemish stenen (stone) style of architecture and a 15th-century Gothic manor house.

Similar to the tablet-dominated Beer Museum around the corner, Historium Brugge uses technology (film and virtual reality) to depict the story of the city's golden age. Housed on the site of  the old Waterhalle, a vast warehouse that was once at the heart of the trading hub that was medieval Bruges, the museum makes fine use of its impressive setting. However, whether you learn anything depends less on your tolerance for history and more on your ability to absorb tales of romance played out on virtual reality headsets.

In Zillebeke, 6 km (4 miles) east from Ypres, this museum is installed in an old chapel. Items on display include bombs, grenades, rifles, and uniforms. More than 6,500 British soldiers lie in the cemetery across the street.

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.

The home of Arnold Vander Haegen, the city's 18th-century former governor, and the recently opened aristocratic residence of the d’Hane Steenhuyse family can be seen in one visit. The Nobel Prize--winning playwright and poet Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) kept a library at the former, which still contains his personal objects, letters, and documents. The latter home is simply a charming glimpse at the ancien régime, as the era is brought to life by historical clips and tales of etiquette.

This crowded former warehouse is dominated by a series of shiny vats used to brew the café's three house beers; the Antwerp Blond (5.1%) is a particularly dry, flavorsome pint. The building's conversion is slightly sterile (its vast, redbrick bar can seat around 350), but the ales and 60-minute tours can't be faulted. Prices are set for groups of 10, but phone ahead and you might be able to squeeze onto the end of another tour; a personal guide is €125.

These narrow mews were where servants had their tiny houses in the days of the prince-bishops. Prominent citizens lived along neighboring En Hors-Château. As late as the 1970s, it was believed that the best approach to urban redevelopment was to tear down these houses. Luckily, common sense prevailed. The Impasse de l’Ange and Impasse de la Couronne are two examples of the six such well-restored impasses in town. Duck under the årvô, the bridge over the alleyway, to discover lush gardens, finely restored Tudor homes, and a number of potales (wall chapels), devoted mostly to the Virgin or to St. Roch, who was venerated as the protector against disease epidemics.

The James Ensorhuis is an introduction to the strange and hallucinatory world of the painter James Ensor (1860–1949), who was recognized late in his life as one of the great artists of the early 20th century. Using violent colors to express his frequently macabre or satirical themes, he depicted a fantastic carnival world peopled by masks and skeletons. The displays in this house, which was his home and studio, include many of the objects found in his work, especially the masks, and copies of his major paintings. Beside the house are five interactive spaces that use audiovisual displays to bring Ensor’s paintings to life.

A colorful yet low-key square that lies at the center of Hanseatic Bruges, the Jan van Eyckplein is landmarked with a statue of the famed 15th-century painter. It includes the old Tolhuis (Customs House), built in 1477, where vehicles on their way to market had to stop while tolls were levied on goods brought from nearby ports. The Poortersloge, a late-Gothic building with a slender spire, was owned by the guild of porters and used as a meeting place for the burghers. It's occasionally open for contemporary art exhibitions. The bear occupying one niche represents the legendary creature speared by Baldwin of the Iron Arm that later became the symbol of the city.

Just east from the city center, the delightful 6-acre Japanese Garden (Japanse Tuin) is the largest of its kind in Europe. As you'd expect, everything is serenely ordered and precise, with a maze of paths surrounded by lush greenery, streams, waterfalls, koi carp ponds, and delicate pavilions. It was designed by the Japanese architect Takayuki Inoue and built when the Japanese city of Itami became twinned with Hasselt in 1985. At quiet times, the silence is only broken by the sound of trickling water, and the occasional chiming of a Peace Bell, which was installed in 2016.

Some 12 km (7½ miles) north of Dinant, just off the road to Namur, the delightful Annevoie Water Gardens present a happy blend of 18th-century French landscaping and romantic Italian garden design. The grounds are particularly remarkable for their naturally occurring, spring-fed waterfalls, fountains, and ponds, interspersed among flower beds, lawns, grottoes, and statues. The water displays function without mechanical aids and have remained in working order for more than two centuries. The adjacent Château d'Annevoie (not open to the public), an impressive 18th-century manor house, blends perfectly with the gardens.

Perpetuating Hasselt’s slightly raffish distinction of having had jenever as its major industry, the museum occupies a building that was a commercial distillery from 1803 until 1971, and the original equipment is still in use and on display. On a tour of the installations, you’ll learn about the production process, while other exhibits include glassware and advertising posters. In the paneled tasting room you can sample jenever of various ages, flavors, and proofs from two dozen Belgian distilleries—your entry ticket includes one free drink.

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 Lace Center maintains the quality and authenticity of the ancient Belgian craft of lace making. This foundation includes a lace museum in the Jerusalem almshouses in Balstraat, as well as a school where youngsters are taught the intricate art of the bobbins. The building is the former home of the Adornes family, and adjoins their mausoleum in the Jeruzalemkerk.

This former Belgian army barracks was used as a holding center and deportation camp by occupying Nazi forces during World War II. Of the more than 25,000 Jewish people who were processed and deported from here, very few made it back to Belgium. Today the buildings house a moving Holocaust memorial dedicated to those people, as well as a documentation center, and a museum explaining Jewish life in Belgium before and during the war.

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.

This museum has been created within the site of the former Royal Boch factory, a 19th-century ceramics manufacturer later known as Villeroy & Boch. The museum has kept much of the old building intact, and you can even still see the old bottle kilns, the last standing in Belgium. It also hosts changing exhibitions exploring ceramics and earthenware, including deep dives into its private Boch collection. 

To the east of the Groot Strand, Klein Strand (Small Beach) occupies the area beside the breakwaters at the entrance to Oostende Harbor. It's less popular than its neighbor as swimming here is prohibited. instead, it is used for activities and events. Amenities:  food and drink; parking (fee). Best for: sunset; walking. 

Knokke-Heist's beach is officially split into four different areas (Heist, Duinbergen, Albertstrand, and Het Zoute), but to untrained observers they form one continuous 9-km (5½-mile) stretch of sand, bordering the industrial port of Zeebrugge at one end, and the dunes of Het Zwin nature reserve and the Dutch resort of Cadzand at the other. The eastern half is more popular, with the bulk of the facilities concentrated around Albertstrand Beach, which is steps from central Knokke.If you're looking for solitude, head to the western end, although the views from there of Zeebrugge are somewhat less appealing. Amenities:  food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: partiers; sunset; surfing; swimming; walking; windsurfing.