Instant Cities: Brussels

Brussels › Places and landmarks

Grand-Place

Grote Markt

Guild houses and a Gothic town hall round one of the most beautiful squares in Europe.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

Photo: Celuici, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1695 the French army of Louis XIV bombarded Brussels and flattened almost everything around the Grand-Place but the town hall. Within a few years the guilds rebuilt their houses in rich Baroque, crowded with gilded statues, scrolls and gables.

The square is a World Heritage site. Every other August its cobbles disappear under a carpet of a million begonias. Visit it in 3D ›

More in Brussels

Town HallThe Gothic town hall with its 96-metre tower, topped by Saint Michael slaying the dragon. King’s HouseThe neo-Gothic house facing the town hall, home of the city museum and Manneken Pis’ wardrobe. Manneken PisA bronze boy barely half a metre tall, with a wardrobe of more than a thousand costumes. Galeries Royales Saint-HubertOne of the first covered shopping arcades in Europe, opened in 1847 under a glass roof. BourseThe old stock exchange of 1873, on a boulevard that has been free of cars since 2015. Cathedral of St Michael and St GudulaBrussels’ Gothic cathedral on the slope towards the upper town, where royal weddings are held. Mont des ArtsThe garden steps between the lower and the upper town, with a view over the city. SablonThe square of antique dealers and chocolatiers, below the Gothic church of Notre-Dame du Sablon. FriesThick fries fried twice in beef fat, served in a paper cone with mayonnaise. ChocolateThe praline was invented in Brussels, in the Galeries Saint-Hubert, in 1912. Comic-strip wallsTintin, the Smurfs and Lucky Luke painted on the gable walls of the old town.