Are you thinking of taking a tour of Brussels but don’t quite know where to start and what to visit?
You’re in the right place!
Visiting Brussels is an experience to have at least once in your life, because it’s a lively, many-sided metropolis. It hosts students from all over the world and street artists who surprise you at every corner. In its small old centre, between music and beautiful murals, it’s impossible to be bored.
Although Belgium became a state relatively recently, the history of Brussels and of the whole surrounding area is very ancient, and you can’t visit it without taking its origins and its position in Europe into account.
Even its geographical position is remarkably important, yesterday as today, because it has made it a meeting point of different languages. While you’re travelling in Brussels it won’t be rare to come across people speaking French, Flemish (Dutch), but also English, German or a mix of them all.
This territory was long divided and disputed between the Netherlands and France: only in 1830, with the Belgian revolution, did it reach independence and the birth of a neutral state (at least until the German parenthesis during the two World Wars).
Today it’s worth visiting Brussels if only for its political and administrative role, the de facto capital of the European Union. But this city is much more: it offers so much to its citizens and to tourists in search of artistic beauty. I hope to help you with this list of what to see in Brussels in 3 days!
Want to know more?
Let’s go!
1 – The Grand Place
The Grand Place, the main square of Brussels, is incredible: a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, in Gothic style, it holds the beautiful town hall, other splendid buildings and the tourist office. It’s the ideal place to start visiting the capital of Belgium.
The absolute star of the square is Saint Michael, the patron of Brussels: his statue tops the spire of the Hôtel de Ville and dominates the city from above, a little like the Madonnina of Milan Cathedral.
The whole square is ringed by the guild houses: here you can recognise the trades that once animated the city (the merchants, the brewers, the tailors, the painters), in whose house even Victor Hugo stayed in 1852, during his exile.
The Grand Place is the perfect place to begin, because this is where much of the population gathers and where you’ll find many street artists. For me, listening to a young woman play the oboe here was unforgettable. But the most magical moment is at night: when the square is lit only by the lamps, wonderful plays of shadow appear among the Gothic architecture. I found it moving and romantic: one of the things to see in Brussels in 3 days!
2 – The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert
After the Grand Place you’ll notice there’s a raised part of the city, the Mont des Arts (more on that shortly); but to get there you’ll pass in front of the beautiful Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert.
They’re a covered walk of about 200 metres, among elegant shops and magnificent glass roofs that let in the sunlight but not the rain. Designed by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, they were inaugurated in 1847, among the oldest shopping arcades in Europe, and are divided into three parts: the Galerie de la Reine, the Galerie du Roi and the Galerie des Princes.
If on the Grand Place there was the chaos of nightlife, here a great calm reigns. I stopped to eat in a delightful bistro with vegetarian dishes, where I tasted one of the best soups of my life, at a very reasonable price (I haven’t eaten meat for years, and in northern Europe it isn’t always easy to find something good).
A curiosity: between 1820 and 1880 several shopping arcades were built in Brussels, the shopping malls of their day, but only three survive: the Saint-Hubert galleries, the Bortier galleries and the Passage du Nord. Don’t forget to take a few photos!
3 – The Cathedral of Brussels
A building you absolutely must seek out is the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula, the most important religious building in Belgium, built from the 13th century on an earlier church.
Originally there was a small church here dedicated to St Michael the Archangel, built around the year 1000; about fifty years later the relics of St Gudula were placed here, and in the 13th century work began on the new, great Gothic building, completed only in the 15th century.
Its closeness to the centre and its long opening hours make it easy to visit at any time. The architecture blends different styles: from outside the Gothic towers stand out, while inside the stained-glass windows have a clear Renaissance stamp. There isn’t much decoration, because of the plundering suffered over the centuries, but I’ll point out the magnificent carved wooden pulpit of 1699 and the original confessionals of the same period, as well as the huge 16th-century windows. Take a look too at the “cathedral treasury” and, for just €2, at the archaeological remains of the Romanesque crypt with ancient mosaics beneath the present church.
4 – The museums of Brussels
To visit Brussels you should also explore its museums, and they’ll take at least half a day. I recommend the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, which hold many masterpieces, from the early Flemish painters to René Magritte.
They’re actually several connected museums, visitable separately or with a single ticket, arranged chronologically: you start with panels by Bosch, Memling and Bruegel, pass through Rubens and Van Dyck, David and Salvator Rosa, and reach the great names of the 20th century such as James Ensor, Vantongerloo, Servranckx and, of course, Magritte.
Magritte has a whole museum devoted to him (the Musée Magritte, opened in 2009), arranged in three sections retracing his personal and artistic path. I warmly recommend it!
5 – The Manneken Pis
You can’t visit Brussels without stopping for a photo of the Manneken Pis.
It’s nothing monumental (indeed, tourists are often surprised by how small it is) but it has a deep meaning for the local people. It’s a bronze fountain depicting a little boy urinating: the current statue is the work of the sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy the Elder and dates to 1619 (the original is now in the City Museum; a copy has stood on site since 1965).
Legends flourish around him: the best known tells of a boy who is said to have put out, by urinating on it, the fuse of a bomb planted by enemies to set the city on fire. The ketje, as the people of Brussels call him, has a genuine wardrobe of over a thousand outfits (on show at the GardeRobe MannekenPis museum) and is dressed according to the occasions of the year.
6 – The Atomium
Just outside the city you’ll notice a truly enormous building: it’s the Atomium, a huge monument built in 1958 for the World Expo. It’s so futuristic it seems impossible it’s over 60 years old!
But what does it represent?
It’s 1958, and there’s great faith in the peaceful use of nuclear energy: so, as the symbol of the Expo, the engineer André Waterkeyn chose a single iron atom, magnified 165 billion times, with its nine spheres connected by tubes.
Like the Eiffel Tower, the Atomium too was not meant to survive the Expo: demolition was already planned, but the structure quickly became one of the city’s most recognisable symbols, so much so that it was fully renovated between 2004 and 2006.
If you’re after the best panorama over Brussels from above, the Atomium is the place: the view from the 102 metres of the highest sphere is breathtaking, all the more so as it stands on a rise. Inside you visit five of the nine spheres, with rotating exhibitions on scientific and futuristic themes.
The Atomium ticket costs around €17. I recommend booking online, because in summer a long queue often forms at the desk: this way you go up and skip the line.
7 – The Mont des Arts and much more
Another viewpoint in Brussels is the terrace of the Mont des Arts (Kunstberg), from which you enjoy a beautiful view over the lower town, by day and by night, with the geometric garden in the foreground.
Underrated by most tourists, Brussels really surprised me: not only does it offer everything you need for a lovely weekend, but it gives the impression of a city that works and takes care of its citizens.
Practical information
Visiting Brussels is a 360-degree international experience: a polyglot, many-sided capital, it offers culinary specialities that are hard to resist, like the fries (exceptional!), the delicious pralines and beers of every kind.
These are already excellent reasons to visit; and it’s a convenient city too, because the old centre is quite small but packed with attractions and can be walked in about half a day. Don’t be fooled by its size: it can offer truly fascinating artistic beauty.
And if you have a few more days, Belgium awaits: an hour away by train is the fairy-tale Bruges, the “Venice of the North”.
And you, what would you put at the top of your list of things to see in Brussels?
