12 Top Places to Visit in Brussels, Belgium — 2026 Guide

No guide to the top places to visit in Brussels could begin anywhere other than the Grand Place — UNESCO World Heritage Site, and widely considered the most beautiful medieval square in Europe. Surrounded on all four sides by extraordinary 17th-century guild houses built after the French bombardment of 1695, the square is a theatre of architectural magnificence: the Gothic Brussels Town Hall (begun 1401), the neo-Gothic King's House (now the Brussels City Museum), and nearly 40 guildhalls each representing a different medieval trade — their gilded facades competing in baroque splendour.

The Grand Place is theatrical at any hour. At night, dramatic lighting transforms it into one of Europe's most beautiful illuminated spaces. In summer (even-numbered years, mid-August), the Flower Carpet event covers the entire cobbled square in a 75m × 24m tapestry of begonias. At Christmas, Winter Wonders fills the square with a giant tree, ice rink, and market stalls. Enter the square from any side street for maximum impact — the reveal as you step into the full square from a narrow lane is one of Europe's great architectural moments.

Built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair and originally intended for demolition, this 102-metre structure represents an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times — nine steel spheres connected by tubes with escalators running through the connecting tunnels. Saved by popular demand, it has become Brussels' most recognisable symbol. Inside, the spheres house exhibitions on the 1958 World's Fair, design, and contemporary art. The top sphere contains an observation deck with panoramic views across Brussels.

Allow 90 minutes minimum. Buy tickets online to avoid queues. Combine with Mini-Europe park next door (scaled models of 350 European monuments) and the nearby Royal Domain of Laeken. The Atomium is particularly photogenic at dusk when the spheres begin to glow. The adjacent Design Museum Brussels opened in 2023 as an offshoot of the Atomium's design collection.

Belgium's most famous — and most unexpectedly tiny — landmark, the Manneken Pis is a small bronze statue of a little boy urinating into a fountain, standing at a mere 53 cm tall. Created in 1619 by sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy (a replica — the original is in the Brussels City Museum), the statue has accumulated a wardrobe of over 1,000 costumes donated by nations and organisations worldwide. Two related statues complete the trio: the Jeanneke Pis (a female counterpart in Impasse de la Fidélité) and the Zinneke Pis (a dog on Rue des Chartreux).

Check the official Brussels website for costume-wearing dates — he changes outfits 130+ times per year. The wardrobe museum inside the Maison du Roi at Grand Place (€8) displays the full collection of over 1,000 costumes from around the world.

Inaugurated in 1847, the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert is Europe's oldest surviving glass-roofed shopping arcade and one of the most beautiful interior spaces in Brussels. Three interconnected galleries — Galerie du Roi, Galerie de la Reine, and Galerie des Princes — form an elegant Florentine-inspired arcade with a 213-metre glass-and-iron barrel vault that floods the interior with light. Today it houses boutique chocolatiers (including Neuhaus — inventors of the Belgian praline in 1912), booksellers, perfumeries, a theatre, and elegant cafés.

Visit in the evening when the arcade's lighting is most atmospheric. The chocolatier Neuhaus at Galerie de la Reine 25 is not only the oldest but most historically significant praline shop in the world — worth a purchase and a visit to the original shop interior.

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts constitute Belgium's greatest art collection, spanning Flemish Primitives (Roger van der Weyden, Hans Memling), the Flemish masters (Rubens, van Dyck, Bruegel), 19th-century Belgian art, and a world-class Surrealist collection. The Magritte Museum within the complex devotes three floors to 200 works by Belgium's most famous artist, including iconic pieces like The Son of Man and The Treachery of Images. Allow at least 2.5 hours for both collections.

The combined ticket (€15) covers the Old Masters collection and the Magritte Museum. Pre-book online to skip queues. The Magritte Museum gift shop has some of the best art prints and gifts in Brussels.

One of Brussels' newest and most impressive attractions, Belgian Beer World opened in 2021 inside the spectacularly renovated 19th-century Bourse building (the former Brussels Stock Exchange), just steps from the Grand Place. The immersive experience traces 5,000 years of beer culture from ancient Mesopotamia to Belgian trappist traditions across multiple interactive floors, culminating in a rooftop bar — the Beerlab — with panoramic views and a selection of 100 Belgian beers. Belgium has 1,500+ breweries and over 1,000 distinct beers, and Belgian beer is inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

The Beerlab rooftop terrace is accessible separately without museum entry and offers arguably the best views of the Grand Place area. In summer, it is one of the best outdoor terraces in the city. Book via the official website to guarantee a table.

Victor Horta was the architect who invented Art Nouveau — and his own house and studio in the Saint-Gilles district, now the Horta Museum, is widely considered the purest and most perfect expression of the style ever created. Built between 1898 and 1901, every element of this extraordinary double townhouse was designed as an integrated whole: the structural iron, the curved staircases, the stained glass, the mosaic floors, the furniture, the door handles, the light fittings — all flowing together in sinuous, organic lines inspired by natural forms. The museum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The museum is small and visitor numbers are limited — book online in advance. Arrive in Saint-Gilles 20 minutes early and walk the surrounding streets (Rue Defacqz, Rue Faider, Rue Paul-Émile Janson) to see the neighbourhood's Art Nouveau streetscape before entering Horta's personal masterpiece.

Belgium is arguably the world capital of the comic strip — birthplace of Tintin (Hergé, 1929), the Smurfs (Peyo, 1958), Lucky Luke, Spirou, Blake & Mortimer, and dozens of other beloved characters. The Belgian Comic Strip Centre is housed in a stunning Victor Horta-designed Art Nouveau building — the Magasin Waucquez (1906) — and pays homage to this extraordinary creative tradition across multiple floors with dedicated rooms, original artwork, interactive exhibits, and a comprehensive bookshop.

Brussels is also an open-air comic strip museum: the Comic Book Route features over 60 giant murals on building walls across the Lower Town depicting scenes from iconic Belgian comics. Pick up the free route map from the Brussels tourist office near Grand Place.

Built in 1880 to celebrate Belgium's 50th anniversary of independence, the Cinquantenaire is one of Brussels' grandest public spaces — a formal French garden flanked by neoclassical palace wings, crowned by a massive triumphal arch added in 1905. Within the complex: the Art & History Museum (200,000+ objects from ancient civilisations to decorative arts), Autoworld (one of Europe's finest vintage car collections), and the Royal Military Museum.

The Cinquantenaire arch climb is free and provides excellent views over the park and the European Quarter skyline. The Art & History Museum is often overlooked — its Art Nouveau decorative arts wing is outstanding and the collection of Egyptian antiquities rivals major national museums.

The Musical Instruments Museum occupies one of Brussels' finest Art Nouveau commercial buildings — the Old England department store (1899) — with extraordinary iron-and-glass facades overlooking the Mont des Arts garden. The collection of over 8,000 instruments from across 5 continents and 5,000 years of musical history is one of the world's largest. The museum's distinctive feature is its audio guide — wireless headphones that automatically play music from any instrument you approach.

The rooftop bar and restaurant at MIM is open even to non-museum visitors and offers the best panoramic view in central Brussels for the price of a coffee or glass of wine. The building's exterior Art Nouveau ironwork is best photographed from the Place Royale side.

Cantillon is one of the most extraordinary Brussels attractions for any serious lover of food, drink, or craft heritage. This family-owned lambic brewery has operated without interruption since 1900 and remains one of only three traditional lambic brewers still in Brussels. Lambic is unique to the region — a wild fermentation beer brewed with local wheat and spontaneously fermented by wild airborne yeasts and bacteria, aged in oak barrels for 1–3 years. The resulting beers (gueuze, kriek, framboise) are unlike any other beers in the world.

The self-guided tour takes visitors through original 19th-century brewing equipment, barrel rooms, and blending room — all still in active daily use — ending with two pours of the current vintage. Arrive when they open on weekday mornings for the best experience. The brewery hosts two open brew days per year (October and November) that sell out immediately.

The Sablon is Brussels' most elegant and refined neighbourhood — a historic quarter of 17th-century townhouses, antique dealers, independent galleries, and world-class chocolatiers grouped around the Grand Sablon square. At its heart stands the magnificent Church of Our Lady of the Sablon — a flamboyant Gothic church begun in 1304 with outstanding stained glass. Every weekend, the square hosts one of Belgium's best antiques markets.

The adjacent Petit Sablon — a small enclosed formal garden with 48 bronze guild figure statues — is one of Brussels' most charming public spaces. For the definitive Brussels chocolate experience, do a self-guided Sablon chocolate walk: start at Wittamer (est. 1910), then Pierre Marcolini for single-origin chocolate, then Laurent Gerbaud for unconventional spiced varieties.