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The musts of Brussels
© OPT / Ricado de la Riva
Art & Culture
© OPT / J. Jeanmart
A Way of Life
© OPT / J.P. Rémy
Green Brussels
© OPT / J.P. Rémy
Itineraries
© Muséum des Sciences naturelles, Bruxelles

The musts of Brussels

 

Brussels is a city of contrasts with a huge variety of interesting places to visit. We suggest a selection of attractions, museums and monuments as starting points for your personal discovery of Brussels.


Brussels immediately brings to mind the Grand-Place, Manneken-Pis and the Atomium, the leading tourist attractions in the capital of Europe.

Manneken Pis
© Bitc-JPLVandewiele


The GRAND-PLACE is the city’s central square and recognised as one of the most beautiful squares in the world. In 1998 it was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.


A stone’s throw from the Grand-Place is the Saint-Jacques quarter, where you will find the MANNEKEN-PIS. This bronze statue, 58 centimetres high, is the symbol of the independent spirit of the people of Brussels.


A date with Grandeur
 

Mini-Europe and Atomium
© Karina Nestler


 The ATOMIUM, a monument 102 metres high, was built by André Waterkeyn for the 1958 World Fair.

 

In the shadow of the Atomium you can travel the length and breadth of Europe in just a few hours at the MINI-EUROPE park as you admire the 1/25 scale models of the most famous monuments in the European Union. 




The ROYAL GREENHOUSES OF LAEKEN were built by the architect Alphonse Balat, at the instigation of King Léopold II.


Art in the city centre


At the heart of the Mont des Arts district, a stone’s throw from the Place Royale, the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) is housed in the former Old England stores, a jewel of Art Nouveau architecture. The museum offers a genuine musical world tour with around 1,200 exhibits. 


Just across the street from the MIM, the Royal Museums of Fine Art of Belgium stand just a few metres the one from the other with a single interconnecting corridor running between the Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art. The Museum of Ancient Art houses a prestigious collection tracing the work of painters from the Low Countries from the 15th to the 17th centuries, as well as a collection of 18th and 19th century sculpture. The Museum of Moderne Arts presents a rich panorama of Belgian painting and sculpture of the 19th and 20th century.   

New Magritte Museum
© Suez


At the Hotel Althenloh, also one of the Royal Museums of Fine Art of Belgium, the MAGRITTE MUSEUM presents the most important works by the Belgian master of surrealism. With more than 200 works exhibited in an area of 2,500 m², this is the world’s largest collection of works by Réné Magritte.

 


On the other side of the Place Royale, BOZAR is a dynamic arts centre with more than 4,000 m² of exhibition space, a superb concert hall, a chamber music room, two small theatres, three new multimedia rooms, the BOZAR shop, the BOZAR BRASSERIE and the Royal Cinémathèque.

 

Art in the park



The Cinquantaire is one of the Royal Museums of Art and History, housed in a magnificent building created by Léopold II that stands in the Cinquantenaire Park. It will take you on a fascinating voyage of discovery through art and history.



You will discover national archaeology, European decorative art, classical antiquity and non-European civilizations.


 

Enjoy your trip!