Top 10 masterpieces to discover with the Brussels Card

27 January 2022

From Flemish primitives (do Brueghel, Rubens or Bosch ring a bell?) to Magritte, or from some thirty authentic Iguanodons to even the Smurfs, Brussels is full of unexpected treasures.

Whether artistic, architectural, historical or scientific, our selection of examples of where Art Nouveau meets comic strips or symbolism, details Brussels from every angle. The following masterpieces are also freely accessible with the Brussels Card: your key to our city.

Discover our top 10 masterpieces to behold in Brussels with the Brussels Card.

1954, Inv. 6715 © Charly Herscovici, avec son aimable autorisation c/o SABAM, Belgique, 2016, MRBAB, photo : J. Geleyns / Ro scan

1. "The Empire of Light", René Magritte

Considered one of the prominent artists of the 20th century, René Magritte is the master of Belgian Surrealism. In this masterpiece from the Magritte Museum, the painter evokes the encounter of night and day in a vision made of dream and poetry.

Visit: from Tuesday to Friday 10:00-17:00. Saturday and Sunday 11:00-18:00. – Magritte Museum

1566 - MRBAB, Bruxelles, inv. 3637 © Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles / photo : J. Geleyns - Art Photography

2. "The Census at Bethlehem", Pieter I Bruegel

This scene illustrates daily life in a snowy Brabant landscape with the biblical arrival of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem as backdrop. Here, Brueghel affirms himself as a precursor painter, a genius with details who departed from the religious tradition of the Renaissance.

Visit: from Tuesday to Friday 10:00-17:00. Saturday and Sunday 11:00-18:00. – Oldmasters Museum

1793 - MRBAB, Bruxelles, inv. 3260 © Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles / photo : J. Geleyns - Art Photography

3. "The Death of Marat", Jacques-Louis David

This iconic painting is often considered as the first painting in the History of Modern Art, due to the contemporary subject chosen by its author, as well as its technique and context. Here by Jacques-Louis David pays tribute to the French politician, journalist and revolutionary Marat who was assassinated in 1793. This masterpiece was completed later that year.

Visit: from Tuesday to Friday 10:00-17:00. Saturday and Sunday 11:00-18:00. – Modern Museum

4. Chimú Offering Bearer

This unique statuette cut in ornamental balsa wood is a vestige of the Chimús, an ancestral civilisation wiped out by the Incas. On top of its refinement, the statuette gained world fame thanks to Belgian comic strip illustrator Hergé, who made it a very coveted talisman in ‘Tintin - The Broken Ear’.

Visit: from Tuesday to Friday 09:30-17:00. Saturday and Sunday 10:00-17:00. – Art & History Museum

MRBAB, Bruxelles, inv. 6768 © Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles / photo : J. Geleyns - Art Photography

5. “The Caress”, Fernand Khnopff

Considered Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff’s most famous painting, this enigmatic artwork conjures the image of a hybrid woman-cheetah in a decor of Antiquity. This vision of an inaccessible dream, in which the woman is both muse and temptress, is the prime example of the Symbolism movement.

Visit: from Tuesday to Friday 10:00-17:00. Saturday and Sunday 11:00-18:00. – Fin-de-Siècle Museum

6. The Bernissart Iguanodons

An unprecedented discovery in international palaeontology, this collection of about thirty skeletons of Iguanodons that were discovered between 1878 and 1881 in the Bernissart coal mine (Hainaut, Belgium) finds a grandiose home at the Museum of Natural Sciences.

Visit: from Tuesday to Friday 09:30-17:00. Saturday and Sunday 10:00-18:00. – Natural Sciences Museum

7. Manneken Pis

This statuette of a little boy, emblematic of Brussels, is the subject of many legends. Created by Jérôme Duquesnoy for the city in 1619, it quickly became an icon that represents the mentality, resistance and a hint of self-deprecation that the inhabitants of Brussels are famous for. The statue, whose original is preserved in the Brussels City Museum, is also known for its extravagant wardrobe of around 1,000 outfits!

Visit: from Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-17:00. – Brussels City Museum & GardeRobe MannekenPis

8. The birth of the Smurfs in “The Flute with Six Holes”

The ninth album of Johan and Peewit, a pair of adventurers living in an enchanted medieval world, saw the birth of the soon-to-be-global-phenomenon, the Smurfs. The original sketch of our little blue imps by genius illustrator Peyo can be admired at the Belgian Comic Strip Center, an architectural creation of Victor Horta himself.

Visit: from Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00. – Belgian Comic Strip Centre

9. Villa Empain

A genuine architectural Art Deco gem, the Villa Empain is a monument to a glorious era. Turned into a centre of art and dialogue between the cultures of East and West, it hosts the rich contemporary art programme of the Boghossian Foundation.

Visit: from Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 -18:00. – Villa Empain

10. Museum of Musical Instruments – Former Old England department store

One of the finest examples of Art Nouveau in Brussels, the Old England building, designed by architect Paul Saintenoy in 1899, used to be a department store. Now hosting the Museum of Musical Instruments, the creation is decorated with many details inspired by nature and possesses an incomparable panoramic view of Brussels to complement its collection of some 1,100 instruments from all over the world.

Visit: from Tuesday to Friday, 09:30-17:00. Saturday & Sunday 10:00-17:00. – Museum of Musical Instruments

Discover them all, and 29 others with the Brussels Card!

Get your Brussels Card

Musée Magritte Museum

The Musée Magritte Museum, located in the heart of Brussels, brings together the world's largest collection of the renowned surrealist artist René Magritte: 230 works and archives are displayed. The multidisciplinary space houses paintings, gouaches, drawings, sculptures, and painted objects, as well as advertising posters, musical scores, photographs and films. The Museum also has the most important collection from the artist’s "vache" period. The selection of works exhibited in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium is constantly expanding with a changing selection of external loans. With the support of Belgian and foreign museums as well as private collectors, works are being made available that have previously never been exhibited. The visitor can thus discover many treasures that are still in private possession. The Musée Magritte Museum has already received 8 nominations and prizes. Every year more than 300,000 visitors come here for all over the world to discover the life and the works of René Magritte.

Musée Magritte Museum

Musée Oldmasters Museum

Memling, Hieronymus Bosch, Quentin Metsys, Breughel, Van Dyck, Rubens, and an impressive number of other giants of painting make a date with you in a magnificent setting. This temple to art celebrates paintings from the 15th to the 18th century, presenting hundreds of masterpieces that command admiration. A garden of sculptures with a fountain completes the display.

Musée Oldmasters Museum

Musée Modern Museum

The collection of modern and contemporary art covers works dating from the late 18th century to the present day. Jacques-Louis David’s famous and dramatic Marat can be seen in the old part of the Museum (Room 55). Two adjacent rooms display small format works illustrating Belgian Neoclassicism and works devoted to the Belgian revolution and the founding of the country. The collection of modern and contemporary art is the object of a vast reinstallation programme. Right now it is presented to the public in the form of temporary exhibitions in the so-called "Patio" room. These hangings or 'Curators' choices' permit a regular rotation of modern art works until this rich collection is housed in its new location.

Musée Modern Museum

Art & History Museum (RMAH)

Embark on a fascinating journey through art and history! Come and stroll among the prehistoric flints and Egyptian mummies, walk between the ancient glasses and stand back to contemplate the impressive medieval tapestries. Immerse yourself in the oriental world as you pass Asian Buddhas and travel to the other side of the world to see a gigantic statue from Easter Island. You still have to admire the magnificent collection of Belgian Art Nouveau... The Art & History Museum is part of the Royal Museums of Art and History (RMAH) that also cover the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM), Halle Gate and the Museums of the Far East (currently closed for renovation).

Art & History Museum (RMAH)

Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum

The Fin-de-Siècle Museum is dedicated to the 1900s, when Brussels, the capital of Europe, was a unique artistic crossroads and the capital of Art Nouveau. This sanctuary of cultural history hosts paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints, sculptures, photographs, films, models and decorative objets d'art. Famous visual artists like Constantin Meunier, James Ensor, Henri Evenepoel, Fernand Khnopff, Léon Spilliaert and Georges Minne testify to the effervescent activity of this period, reflected also in all other creative fields: literature, opera, music, architecture, photography and poetry (Maurice Maeterlinck, Emile Verhaeren, Octave Maus, Victor Horta, Henry Van de Velde, Maurice Kufferath, Guillaume Lekeu and others). Located at the heart of Brussels, where between 1884 and 1914 the exhibitions of Les XX and La Libre Esthétique made the city one of the artistic capitals of the late nineteenth century, this museum is distinguished by its multidisciplinary nature, through a partnership formed with the Royal Library, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, the Royal Museums of Art and History, Cinematek, the Bibliotheca Wittockiana, the King Baudouin Foundation and the Brussels Capital Region for housing the Gillion Crowet collection, which is one of the museum's highlights.

Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum

Museum of Natural Sciences

THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES: A GREAT DAY OUT, NATURALLY! In the largest Dinosaur Gallery in Europe, you can meet the famous Bernissart Iguanodons, T.rex, Triceratops, Diplodocus, and 34 other species. But that’s not all! The Earth is swarming with life - rediscover it in the new Gallery, Living Planet, through an aesthetic, family-friendly and scientific approach to biodiversity. Learn about the human body and how we evolved in the Gallery of Humankind and go back in time in the Gallery of Evolution. You can also find out about urban species in BiodiverCITY, discover 250 years of the history of Natural Sciences through 14 iconic specimens, beware of the kings of the Cretaceous seas in the Mosasaur Hall or admire the magnificent crystals in the Mineral Hall. And last but not least, don't miss the temporary exhibitions and all the activities of the Educational Service: more information at www.naturalsciences.be.

Museum of Natural Sciences

Museum of the City of Brussels

Two majestic buildings that stand opposite each other on Brussels' Grand Place have a long-standing rivalry: on one side you have Brussels' City Hall, and on the other the Broodhuis (Bread House), a UNESCO World Heritage Site which houses the Brussels City Museum. The rivalry between these two buildings is no coincidence. In the 15th century, the Duke of Brabant replaced the 13th century wooden bread market building with a prestigious building that would be a symbol of his power and face off against the imposing building on the other side of the Grand Place that symbolised the city's independence. The building owes its French name of Maison du Roi (King's House) to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who once ruled over a large part of the globe and once owned the Bread House. After being destroyed in the 16th century, it was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style in the 19th century by city architect Victor Jamaer. But it's not all about the Broodhuis' history and facade. Inside the Brussels City Museum gives a comprehensive overview of Brussels' history, with particular attention given to the arts, crafts,urbanism and architecture . The original Manneken Pis is also housed here for security reasons, but as for his wardrobe, which is a thousand times larger than even the most passionate fashionista's, you can marvel at that in its dedicated museum on Rue du Chêne - Eikstraat. Combined ticket giving access to the Brussels City Museum -Maison du Roi and the Garderobe MannekenPis.

Museum of the City of Brussels

GardeRobe MannekenPis

The incredible Manneken-Pis dressing room awaits you at 19 Rue du Chêne, a stone's throw away from the famous fountain. A representative selection of more than one hundred costumes is presented according to seven themes: geography, folklore, charity and citizens’ associations, trades, celebrities and characters, sports and designers. They show the richness of this fabulous and uncommon collection, which today includes nearly 1,000 items! The sculpture’s clothing – which is a tradition dating back to the 17th century! – is still part of the folklore and historical heritage of the city of Brussels. Combined ticket giving access to the Brussels City Museum -Maison du Roi and the Garderobe MannekenPis.

GardeRobe MannekenPis

Comic Strip Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée)

A world full of comics An accomplished attraction located in the heart of Brussels, the Comics Art Museum has been honouring the creators and heroes of the 9th Art for 30 years. The regularly renewed permanent exhibitions and a diversified programme of temporary exhibitions enable visitors to discover the countless aspects of comics art. Famous characters lead the way towards new adventures, an encounter with a world where creativity has no limits. Enhanced by an exceptional Art Nouveau home designed by Victor Horta, the Comics Art Museum is just as much a tribute to the pioneers as a glimpse of contemporary comics art.

Comic Strip Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée)

Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain

Opening of Villa Empain to the public according to several themes of organised activities and events (exhibitions, concerts, conferences, etc.) from 2010. La Fondation Boghossian has its international office in Villa Empain, on which restoration work began in 2008. With the Stoclet building, constructed by the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann in 1911, Villa Empain is undoubtedly one of the finest masterpieces of Art Deco architecture in Brussels. In 1930, Baron Louis Empain, then aged 21 years, had this 2,500-metre-square mansion built on the prestigious Avenue des Nations, which was later renamed Avenue Franklin Roosevelt. He entrusted the building of this fine house to the Swiss architect Michel Polak, assisted by his colleague Alfred Hoch. The plan designed for Baron Empain on a 55-acre plot included a monumental villa with four façades in polished granite, a garden surrounding a swimming pool ornamented with a pergola, and a caretaker's lodge. The modern and luxurious nature of this structure soon aroused enthusiasm and curiosity. It is true that the variety and quality of the materials used (marble, polished granite, bronze, wrought iron, stained-glass windows and precious woods), the sophistication of the details and the coherence of the whole thing with simple but imposing lines immediately contributed to its patrimonial value.

Cultural centres

Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain

MIM - Musical Instruments Museum (MRAH)

As soon as it opened at the end of the 19th century, the luxurious Old England department store earned an excellent reputation for its highly distinctive building. The entrance to the building is a jewel of the Art Nouveau style, while the rest is in perfect harmony with the neoclassical ensemble on the Place Royale, and just around the corner from the Grand-Place and Central Station, no less! With a wealth of some 9.000 instruments, some 1.200 of which are on permanent exhibit, the museum's reputation is mainly built on its extraordinary collections. Once inside, you'll embark on a true tour of the musical world. After your visit, the instruments and their history will no longer hold any secrets: from the viola da gamba from the Court of Brussels to the 20th century theremin, and even including the African kora! The mim is nothing other than a place to experience music. A visitor's guidance system allows you to explore the thematic tours to the tune of the melodious sound of the instruments presented. A program packed with concerts, demonstrations and workshops for the young and the not so young makes the mim experience even better. The mim has its own concert hall, specialized library, museum shop, workshop for restauration and conservation of musical instruments and is crowned by a restaurant with panoramic view over Brussels.

MIM - Musical Instruments Museum (MRAH)

10 must-visit Art Nouveau houses and mansions in Brussels

Along the streets of Brussels, numerous houses and mansions bear witness to the emergence and blossoming of the iconic Art Nouveau style.

10 must-visit Art Nouveau houses and mansions in Brussels Hôtel Tassel - Tasselhuis

Brussels in your pocket: tourist guides in app mode!

Interactive, fun and adapted to your needs, apps are the new tourist guides and show you the best way to discover Brussels and its region.

Brussels in your pocket: tourist guides in app mode!

Brussels' top 10 museums and attractions

Are you coming to Brussels and need some inspiration for your visits? Join us to discover the capital's unmissable museums and attractions, thanks to our list of the most popular, in terms of visitor numbers.

Brussels' top 10 museums and attractions Espace Vanderborght