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| Grand Place The Grand Place is the heart of Brussels, a top tourist draw and a vibrant, beautiful and functional part of the city. The magnificent square boasts popular sidewalk cafes, intimate cellar restaurants, the country's finest guildhouses and the splendid Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall), a gothic masterpiece. The square dates from the 12th century and was once marshland. By the mid-14th century, Brussels was booming and a prosperous market that 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 - guildhouses - 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. The superb structure, with its creamy fa?ade 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 The Royal Museums of Fine Arts is actually a single museum divided into two sections, one housing ancient art and the other modern art. This is Belgium's premier collection of fine 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 full day to do them justice. If you plan your visit right, you could even catch the weekly lunchtime concert in the Musée d'Art Ancien. The best strategy is to buy a map of the rooms and follow its color-coded system. Some highlights of the Musée d'Art Ancien include Flemish Primitive works by such artists as Rogier Van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts and Gerard David, and several masterpieces by Rubens. The Musée d'Art Moderne features Jacques-Louis David's Death of Marat and works by Monet, Gaugin, Magritte and Delvaux. Cathédrale des Sts Michel & Gudule The splendid twin-towered cathedral at parvis Ste Gudule is named for Brussels' two patron saints. It only recently emerged from the scaffolding of years of renovation and 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 Upper and Lower Towns and off the well-beaten tourist trail. In addition, city planning has left it marooned like an ancient island in the midst of modern development - which is precisely why it's worth the effort to visit the ancient edifice. Begun in 1226, the cathedral took some 300 years to build and consequently showcases a number of styles, from romanesque to renaissance with all manner of gothic styles in between. 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, sculpted by Antwerp artist Hedrik Verbruggen, is worth inspecting: Note Adam and Eve being driven from Eden by fearsome skeletons. In the crypt are the remains of an 11th-century romanesque chapel. Rue des Bouchers Whether you decide to eat here or not, the famous rue des Bouchers (Butchers' St), two blocks from the Grand Place, is a spectacle that engages all your senses. The narrow cobbled street is packed with restaurants that compete for the tourist trade with hard-sell waiters and displays piled high with all manner of marine delicacies. Many of the area's restaurants are not recommended, but there are exceptions. Chez Léon (No 18), a rambling place occupying several gabled houses, is famous for heaping helpings of moules-frites (mussels and chips). Aux Armes de Bruxelles (No 13) is a tad more upscale, with battalions of elderly, starched waiters serving Belgian classics like waterzooi (creamy fish stew). Manneken Pis Despite being Belgium's national symbol and known throughout the world, this fountain - a little boy cheerfully pissing into a pool below - never fails to disappoint visitors with its size. It's tiny. The modern bronze Manneken Pis was sculpted by Jerôme Duquesnoy in 1619. A stone version - nicknamed 'Little Julian' - stood here from the 14th century. The statue's origins are lost in legend: Some say he was modeled on a boy who extinguished a fire, while others insist he was the son of a nobleman. Whatever the real story, the people of Brussels have adopted him as a symbol of their indomitable and irreverent spirit, and on occasion dress him up in one of his 650-odd costumes. If you just can't get enough of fountains involving urinating children, Manneken Pis' female counterpart squats in an alley off rue des Bouchers. Jeanneke Pis was erected in 1985 by Denis Adrien Debouvrie 'in honor of loyalty.' Loyalty to what is unclear, but there's certainly no bond between Jeanneke and the tourist office, whose official guidebook doesn't even acknowledge her existence. |
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