Brussels › Places and landmarks
Mont des Arts
The garden steps between the lower and the upper town, with a view over the city.
The Mont des Arts links the old lower town with the royal quarter on the hill. Its formal garden and steps, laid out in the 1950s, lead up between the Royal Library and the Square conference centre.
From the top the view runs over the roofs to the town hall’s tower. The Magritte Museum and the Musical Instruments Museum, in an Art Nouveau department store, are close by.
More in Brussels
Grand-PlaceGuild houses and a Gothic town hall round one of the most beautiful squares in Europe.
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.
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.