 Cathédrale des Sts Michel & Gudule
This
splendid twin-towered cathedral at Parvis Sainte Gudule is named after
Brussels' male and female patron saints. After years of renovation, it now
sits gleaming on the hillside to the north of Gare Centrale.
The rather out-of-the-way location means it is often overlooked - lost
between the lower and upper towns and not on any of the paths most visitors
tread.
Begun in 1226, the cathedral took some 300 years to build and
consequently reveals a blend of styles - from Romanesque through all the
stages of Gothic and right up to Renaissance. The interior is light and airy
but almost bereft of decoration due to plundering, first by Protestants in
the 17th century and later by the French army.
Beautiful stained-glass windows flood the nave with light and the
enormous wooden pulpit, depicting Adam and Eve being driven out of Eden by
fearsome skeletons, is worth inspecting. In the crypt are the remains of an
11th-century Romanesque chapel.
Grand Place
 Brussels'
magnificent central square, Grand Place, boasts the country's finest baroque
guildhalls, popular pavement cafes and intimate restaurants. Hidden at the
core of the old town, it's only revealed as you enter the narrow side alleys
surrounding the square, a discreet position that adds to its charm.
The square dates from the 12th century and was once marshland. By the
mid-14th century, Brussels was booming and a prosperous market covered not
only the Grand Place but also the surrounding streets, as evidenced by names
such as Rue au Beurre (Butter St), Rue des Bouchers (Butchers' St) and Rue
du Marché aux Poulets (Chicken Market St).
The city's increasingly wealthy merchant guilds established headquarters
- guildhalls - right in the middle of the milieu. The city added the Hôtel
de Ville, cementing the Grand Place's role as the hub of commercial,
political and civic life in Brussels. If you were promoting a jousting
tournament or public execution in medieval Belgium, this would have been
your A-list venue.
Most of the square's historic buildings were destroyed in 1695, when
France's King Louis XIV bombed the area for 36 hours. The Hôtel de Ville was
the only major building to survive - ironic, considering that it was the
primary target - and nearly all the other buildings on Grand Place today are
17th-century replacements. The superb structure of Hôtel de Ville, with its
creamy façade covered in stone reliefs and an intricate 100m-high
(328ft-high) tower topped by a gilded statue of St Michel, is open for
guided tours.
The Grand Place radiates different auras depending on the time of day and
season. In the morning, superb guildhouses at the bottom (southern) end
glint in the sun; at dusk, the azure sky becomes a vivid backdrop to the
illuminated buildings. During the summer a carpet of flowers covers the
whole square, and in winter ice-skaters swirl across the transformed cobbled
surface.
 Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique
This museum houses Belgium's premier collections of ancient and modern
art and is particularly well endowed with works by Pieter Breugel the Elder,
Rubens and the Belgian Surrealists. Both sections are large and you'll need
a good day here if you want to do them justice.
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts is actually a single museum divided into
two sections - the Musée d'Art Ancien and the adjoining Musée d'Art Moderne.
If you plan your visit, you may be able to use the weekly lunchtime
concert held in the Musée d'Art Ancien as a break between the two sections;
phone the museum beforehand for details.
The best strategy is to buy a plan of the rooms and follow its colour-coded
system.
THE HEYSEL EXHIBITION PARK AND THE ATOMIUM
 THE HEYSEL EXHIBITION PARK
In the 1930's Belgium wanted to organize a world exhibition to show its
prosperity after the disasters of World War I and also to celebrate the
centenary of its independence. The
exhibition surface in the central Cinquantenaire park had become too small.
Therefore, it was decided that the Expo of 1935 was to take place north of
the center of Brussels, in the Heizel/Heysel plains. This area had already
been prepared for urbanization during the reign of Leopold II who had
purchased 200 hectare of free land. His original plans, however, had never
been realized.
The exhibition of 1935
This major event took 10 years to organize. The results, however, were
impressive. More than 20 million visitors came to Brussels, 182 buildings
were constructed, 25 countries participated, more than 300 congresses,
parades, festivals and concerts were organized. Each country was represented
in a national pavilion were national products and accomplishments were shown
to the rest of the world. Belgium also built a colonial pavilion to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Congo Freestate.
Furthermore, a giant attraction park and a reconstruction of "old Brussels"
drew large crowds to the Heysel.
The most eye-catching buildings are still on the site today. The
Centenary halls are on the northern side of the Heysel. It is here that
today still the Brussels trade fairs are organized On the left side of these
halls, the lamps can be seen of the former Heysel football stadium, which
was also originally built in 1930. After the Heysel tragedy in 1985, the
football stadium was rebuilt in 1993 and is now called the King Boudewijn
stadium.
The exhibition of 1958
The only major monument of 1958 that has remained at the Heysel is also
the most spectacular: the Atomium (see below). This was the first world
exhibition to take place after World War II. The entire economic outlook was
much better than in the 1930's (the creation of the European Economic
Community in 1957) and the world was vibrating with enthusiasm for the new
technologies (nuclear power, the first satellite launch by the soviets,
etc.). Over 35 million people visited the Expo 58 and 46 countries from six
continents were represented. Most pavilions were built in a very modern
futuristic architectural style which became the symbol of that era.
Nowadays the Heysel park is still visited by many. Next to the football
stadium is KINEPOLIS, a major movie complex with 28 cinema rooms and a giant
IMAX screen. Another main attraction is the beautiful MINI-EUROPE park,
which contains miniature models (scale 1:25) of major monuments from the
member states of the European Union.
THE ATOMIUM
 This
monument from 1958 has become the Eiffel Tower of Brussels. The Atomium is
the visual representation of the concept of an "atom". It symbolizes an
elementary iron crystal with its 9 atoms and magnified 150 billion times. It
honored the metal and iron industry and the belief in the atomic power. The
architect was André WATERKEYN. It took 18 months to conceive and another 18
months to construct. The monument is coated with aluminum, weighs 2.400 tons
and is 102 meters high. Each sphere has a diameter of 18 meters. An elevator
takes visitors to the upper sphere where one can enjoy a panoramic view of
the Heysel area and (if the weather is good) the city of Brussels. There is
also a good buffet-restaurant (Chez Adrienne) in the upper sphere. In the
other spheres expositions are organized. They can be visited by means of
escalators. In the coming years the monument will undergo cleaning and
restoration.
Location
Eeuwfeestlaan/ Boulevard du Centenaire 1020 Brussels (Laken)
Opening hours
Sept. to March: 10 a.m. till 5.30 p.m. April to August: 9 a.m. till 7.30
p.m.
Admission
- Adults : 5,45 € (Euro) per person, Children (under 12) : 3,97 € (Euro)
- Groups (as from 20 persons): 4,46 € (Euro) per adult person, 3,47 €
(Euro) per child under 12
- Senior citizens : 3,72 € (Euro)
 Brussels
City Tour
Book this walking and coach tour incorporating all the main sights
of Brussels! See the Grand Place, world famous Market Square, and
the heart of medieval Brussels with its incomparable City Hall and
precious Guild Houses. Discover the art-nouveau houses, Chinese
Pavilion and the Parliament. Also visit a workshop to learn about
the famous vintage craft of Brussels lace
» More BRUSSELS
Sightseeing Tours Events & Attractions |
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Nobody
actually knows why the manneken is there. He is believed to be nothing more
than a decoration on top of a fountain, where people in the Middle-Ages came
to get fresh water. Already in the 15th century a fountain called 'manneken-pis'
existed in the Stoofstraat/Rue de l'étuve. The official origin can be traced
back to the 13th of August 1619 when the city ordered the sculptor Jerome
Duquesnoy to make a new bronze statue of manneken-pis to replace an old and
withered one. During the course of the centuries our little manneken has
often been hidden to protect him against bombs of invading armies. He has
also been stolen several times by plundering soldiers and even by the
citizens of Geraardsbergen, a city in Flanders that claims to possess the
oldest statue of a peeing boy in Belgium. 
