Walking tour around the city centre of Brussels

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Grand Place, Brussels Main Square, Brussels 1000 Belgium

The Grand-Place is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Construction on it began in the 15th century; first of all, some market halls, trade guild houses, and a town hall to establish the authority of this trading centre. Bombarded for 3 days by the French army in 1695, it was almost completely destroyed but, like a phoenix, it went on to rise from the ashes in less than 5 years. That’s why four styles stand alongside each other or sometimes even overlap; it’s a wonderful hotch-potch of Gothic, opulent baroque, neoclassical and neogothic. The tower is more or less 96 meters tall.

History of the Grand-Place

At the Grand-Place, numerous historic events took place:

1523: the first Protestant martyrs, Hendrik Voes and Jan Van Essen, are burned by the Inquisition there

1568: the counts of Egmont and Hoorn are beheaded there

August 1695: during the War of the League of Augsbourg, most of the houses on the Grand-Place were destroyed during a bombardment of the City by the French troops of marshal De Villeroy. Only the facade and the tower of the City Hall, which were the target, and some stone walls resisted the flaming canon balls. The houses surrounding the square were quickly reconstructed, in stone this time, by the various guilds. Among these, the house of the Brewers guild which shelters the Brewers Museum today.

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral (Cathedrale St-Michel et Ste-Gudule), Parvis Sainte-Gudule Treurenberg Hill, Brussels 1000 Belgium

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is a Roman Catholic church in Brussels, Belgium. The church was given cathedral status in 1962 and has since been the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels, together with St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen.

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, Galerie du Roi 5 Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, Brussels 1000 Belgium

The Saint-Hubert Royal Galleries are an ensemble of glazed shopping arcades in Brussels, Belgium. Designed and built by architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer between 1846 and 1847, they precede other famous 19th-century shopping arcades such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and The Passage in St Petersburg

Duration: 15 minutes

Stop At: La Bourse de Bruxelles, Place de la Bourse 1, Brussels 1000 Belgium

Nice street to walk

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Manneken Pis, corner of rue du Chene and rue de l'Etuve, Brussels 1000 Belgium

Manneken Pis is a landmark small bronze sculpture in the centre of Brussels, depicting a naked little boy urinating into a fountain's basin. It was designed by Hiëronymus Duquesnoy the Elder and put in place in 1618 or 1619. The current statue is a copy which dates from 1965.

Duration: 5 minutes