Brussels

The Grand Place (Grote Markt) is the medieval heart of Brussels and one of the most celebrated civic squares in the world. Victor Hugo, who lived in exile at number 26 of the Grand Place in 1852, called it “the most beautiful square in the world.” The square is enclosed on all sides by gilded baroque guild houses (rebuilt after French bombardment in 1695), with the Gothic Town Hall (14th century, its tower asymmetric because the builder died mid-construction and no one dared correct it) on one side and the King's House (Maison du Roi) — which houses the Brussels City Museum and houses 900+ of the Manneken Pis's outfits — on the other. The Grand Place hosts the biennial Flower Carpet (a 1,800 square metre carpet of begonias, installed in August of even years), a daily Christmas market in December, and a general atmosphere of cafes, tourists, and locals using it exactly as it was designed: as a civic living room. The surrounding side streets hold the best praline chocolatiers, the street hosting the oldest Brussels-waffle vendor (Gaufres de Bruxelles), and the small alley where the Manneken Pis stands — unguarded, frequently costumed, and genuinely small.

Brussels is the birthplace of Art Nouveau — the architectural and decorative movement that swept Europe at the turn of the 20th century, and no city has more of it than its origin point. Victor Horta's own town house (now the Horta Museum, UNESCO World Heritage Site) on the Rue Américaine in Ixelles is the movement's finest domestic example: flowing ironwork, mosaic floors, and skylights that fill every room with diffused natural light. The Hôtel van Eetvelde on the Avenue Palmerston is equally significant. The Old England Building on the Place Royale (now the Musical Instruments Museum, MIM) brought Art Nouveau to commercial architecture. Ixelles and Saint-Gilles — the southern inner communes — have dozens of intact Art Nouveau facades along their residential streets, making a walking tour here as rewarding as any museum visit. The free Comic Strip Route through the city center paints 50+ large-format murals depicting Belgian cartoon characters on building walls — a second art trail requiring only walking shoes.

The European Quarter around the Rond-Point Schuman houses the European Commission (the Berlaymont building), the European Parliament, and the Council of the EU — the institutional apparatus of the bloc — in a cluster of glass and steel towers that feels deliberately separate from the medieval city center. The Parliament's Hemicycle is open for guided tours (free, book online), and the House of European History on Parc Léopold is an outstanding free museum covering the European project from 1914 to the present with thoughtful, multilingual displays. North of the center, the Atomium — nine steel spheres representing an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times, built for the 1958 World Expo — remains the city's most distinctive modern landmark. The spheres contain exhibition spaces and a panoramic restaurant; the view from the top sphere takes in Brussels and, on clear days, as far as Bruges. Adjacent Mini-Europe has scale models of European landmarks including ones from countries no longer in the EU — a curiosity of timing.

Belgian beer is among the most complex and diverse in the world, and Brussels is its spiritual capital even if the breweries are mostly in the surrounding Pajottenland. Gueuze (a spontaneously fermented lambic blend, bone-dry and acidic) and kriek (lambic with cherries) are uniquely local — the Cantillon Brewery in Anderlecht, still family-run and open to visitors, is the only lambic brewery left within the city limits and one of the world's great brewery experiences. Moeder Lambic Fontainas on Place Fontainas keeps 45 Belgian beers on tap. Delirium Village near the Grand Place claims the Guinness World Record for most beers available (over 2,000 bottles). Food follows similar logic: moules-frites (mussels in white wine with fries) at Chez Léon or on the Rue des Bouchers; waterzooi (a Ghent-born cream-and-vegetable stew with fish or chicken) in any brasserie; stoemp (mashed potato with vegetables, quintessentially Bruxellois) with a pork chop. Brussels' own light, rectangular waffle style is a genuinely different food from the denser Liège waffle found further east — worth knowing before ordering one expecting the other. The Marché du Midi Sunday market — one of the largest in Europe — brings the city's North African immigrant community to a vast outdoor market south of the Midi station.

Belgium calls the comic strip the “ninth art,” and Brussels is its capital. Tintin (Hergé), the Smurfs (Peyo), Lucky Luke (Morris), Spirou and Fantasio, and Blake and Mortimer were all created in Brussels. The Belgian Comic Strip Centre (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée) on the Rue des Sables occupies a Victor Horta-designed Art Nouveau building and holds the world's most comprehensive collection of original strips, original artwork, and production materials covering Belgian comics from 1896 to the present. The free Comic Strip Route maps 50+ large-scale murals across the city center — the Broussaille mural near the Centre and the Ric Hochet mural in Saint-Gilles are the most photographed. The Centre's shop carries original print editions, art books, and figurines; the attached brasserie serves lunch in an extraordinary interior.