Bruges
The beautiful 1420 stadhuis features a fanciful facade that’s second only to Leuven’s for exquisitely turreted Gothic excess. Inside, an audioguide…
Must-see attractions in Belgium
Antwerp
Combining the impressive 17th-century houses of artist Frans Snijders and of Antwerp lawyer, mayor and Rubens-patron Nicolaas Rockox, this recently…
Antwerp
As is the case with every great Flemish city, Antwerp’s medieval heart is a classic Grote Markt (market square). Here the triangular, pedestrianised space…
Brussels
Brussels is well endowed with outlying forests and parklands, but in the inner city it's a different story. The largest central patch of greenery is Parc…
Brussels
The beautifully presented Magritte Museum holds the world’s largest collection of the surrealist pioneer’s paintings and drawings. Watch his style develop…
Brussels
About 200m uphill from Place du Grand Sablon, this charming little garden is ringed by 48 bronze statuettes representing the medieval guilds. Standing…
Brussels
In the old Bruxellois dialect, zinneke means ‘a person of mixed origins’, which sums up the city’s inhabitants to this day. Hence Flemish sculptor Tom…
Brussels
The Bourse is Belgium’s 1873 stock-exchange building. It's closed to visitors, but you can enjoy its grandiose neoclassical facade, which is brilliantly…
Brussels
The Jewish Museum hosts good temporary photography exhibits and a permanent collection relating to Jewish life in Belgium and beyond, with a section on…
Brussels
In one of the most distinctive Marolles murals, slinky chanteuse Josephine, with a leopard on a lead, shakes hands with a rotund monk. Behind, both in the…
Église St-Jean-Baptiste au Béguinage
Brussels
This soaring 1657 Flemish baroque masterpiece was designed by Luc Fayd’Herbe, a student of Rubens. It’s often cited as Belgium’s most beautiful church and…
Brussels
The archers' guildhall features a golden phoenix rising from the ashes, which signifies the rebirth of the Grand Place after its bombardment by the French…
Brussels
The lovely butchers' guildhall, featuring a carved swan above the door, hosted Karl Marx in 1847. Ironically, it’s now home to the Grand Place's finest…
Brussels
The city's striking modern library is a beautifully designed space, containing a small museum about books and printing, and a top-floor cafeteria.
Brussels
An 1893 house was designed by prominent art nouveau architect Paul Hankar (1859–1901) as his own studio.
Wallonia
Nestled in a pretty wooded dell are these extensive, ivy-clad ruins. Once one of Belgium’s biggest monastic complexes, Villers was never rebuilt after the…
Northeast Belgium
Some 12km northwest of Mechelen, this haunting, moated prison-fort was built in 1906. However, its use as a notorious Nazi internment camp in WWII is the…
Bruges
Within the so-caled Adornesdomein estate is one of Bruges’ oddest churches, the 15th-century Jeruzalemkerk, built by the Adornes family. Supposedly based…
Ghent
Once the country’s biggest abbey, St-Pieters was the original centre around which Ghent grew. Its fabulous wealth evaporated after French revolutionary…
Wallonia
For 22 days in 1940 the Nazi leader commanded Western Front operations from forest here, 8km south of Couvin. The chalet where he lived has been…
Wallonia
Within this lofty, airy, 15th-century Gothic church you'll find the golden reliquary of Ste-Waudru (hanging above the altar) and the fanciful 1782 Car d…
Wallonia
Sitting in an artificial lake within a vast manicured park, the Château de Belœil is a regal country palace-house that's packed with classical furniture…
Ostend
The gripping Atlantikwall is a remarkably extensive complex of WWI and WWII bunkers, gun emplacements and linking brick tunnels created by occupying…
Wallonia
Opposite the church and tourist office on the main road in Waterloo itself, this former inn is where Wellington stayed before the battle. The museum,…
The Ardennes
The very picturesque Château de Reinhardstein was built in 1354 and restored to archetypal fortress appearance in 1969. Entry is by 75-minute guided tours…
Wallonia
This sizeable complex occupies a mine site where a horrific accident killed 262 miners in 1956. A gripping multilingual video commemorates that; admission…
Namur
In its later guises, the fortress moved the majority of its key installations underground. Fascinating visits, by tour only, walk you through some 500m of…
Ghent
Thought to have been originally constructed around the 13th and 14th centuries, and reconstructed in 1595 after much savagery and repeated pillaging,…
Wallonia
Waterloo’s most arresting sight is a steep, grassy cone topped by a massive bronze lion. It commemorates, incredibly, not victory nor the glorious dead…
Brussels
This fanciful feast of neo-Gothic arches, verdigris statues and mini-spires is bigger, darker and nearly 200 years younger than the surrounding guildhalls…
Brussels
Laboriously built between 1444 and 1480, the splendid, slightly asymmetrical Hôtel de Ville was almost the only building on the Grand Place to escape the…
Ghent
Ghent’s magnificent and flamboyant city hall was started in 1519 but not finished until 1600, by which time it had transformed into a Renaissance-style…
The Ardennes
Well worth the 1km detour if you're driving between Eupen and Verviers (turn south at Dolhain), Limbourg is one of Belgium's most delightful historic…
Northwest Belgium
Oudenaarde’s impressive market square is dominated by this gorgeous town hall, built in the secular Brabantine Gothic style. The building houses the MOU…
Brussels
Due to reopen in late 2018 after five years of restoration, the revived Africa Museum looks set to be a big draw, and a world away from its earlier dusty…
Wallonia
Though sparse on sights, this vast, unadorned 1818 citadel looms menacingly on its clifftop, offering toe-curling views high over town. The entrance price…
Musée David et Alice van Buuren
Brussels
In a 1928 art deco showpiece house you’ll find this exquisite museum, where five rooms are crammed with sublime furnishings, stained glass and top-quality…
Église Notre-Dame de la Chapelle
Brussels
Brussels’ oldest surviving church now curiously incorporates the decapitated tower of the 1134 original as the central section of a bigger Gothic edifice…
