Grand-Place
Every guildhall surrounding you was rebuilt from rubble — French artillery levelled the square in 1695, and the Town Hall tower survived only because it was the gunners' aiming point.
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A 68 by 110 metre paved square enclosed by Baroque guild buildings and two larger edifices: the Flamboyant Gothic Town Hall and the neo-Gothic King's House, which now holds the Brussels City Museum. UNESCO World Heritage since 1998. Each August in even-numbered years, an immense flower carpet is laid across the centre of the square.
What to look for
- The Town Hall facade and tower — the sole structure to survive the 1695 French bombardment intact
- The neo-Gothic King's House (also called the Bread House), home to the Brussels City Museum
- The ring of Baroque guildhalls, each rebuilt by a different trade guild in the years after 1695
Premetro (underground tram) lines 4 and 10 stop at Bourse - Grand-Place/Beurs - Grote Markt directly beneath the square.
Grand-Place is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Brussels, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Brussels pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Brussels
- Manneken PisA 55.5 cm bronze boy that somehow became the face of an entire country — the joke is entirely intentional.
- AtomiumNine stainless-steel spheres arranged as an iron crystal blown up 165 billion times — built to headline a World's Fair and never taken down.
- Stoclet PalaceA UNESCO World Heritage house you can only see from the pavement — by design, and by the owner's choice.
- King Baudouin StadiumInaugurated for Belgium's 100th birthday in 1930, this 70,000-seat bowl on the Heysel Plateau hosted six European finals — and the night football changed forever.
- Cathedral of St. Michael and St. GudulaBelgium's national church began as a chapel on a trade-route crossroads in the 9th century — eleven centuries of building decisions are now stacked on a hill called "Mount of Sorrow."
- Jeanneke PisBrussels' self-aware answer to its famous urinating boy — dreamed up at breakfast and sketched on a paper tablecloth in 1985.