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Belgium,
Historic Cities
Historic Cities: -
Some of the more popular historic cities in the country are as follows:
Brussels: The capital of Belgium and the centre of the European Union and NATO. The main sights in Brussels include St Michael and St Gudule's Cathedral (13th-16th century) and the famous Grand-Place in the heart of the city. It is here that the early 15th-century Gothic-style Town Hall and the Maison du Roi, containing the Municipal Museum, are located. Other attractions include Mont des Arts, the park which links the upper and lower parts of the city; the elegant Place Royale built between 1774 and 1780 in the style of Louis XVI; the Manneken-Pis statue which dates from 1619 and symbolises the irreverence of the 'Bruxellois'; and dozens of museums of interest, including the Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art. The Museum of Musical Instruments opened in 2000 in one of Brussels' most unusual art nouveau buildings. Among other areas worth exploring are the Ilot Sacré, the picturesque area of narrow streets to the northeast of the Grand-Place; the fashionable boulevard de Waterloo; the administrative quarter, a completely symmetrical park area commanding a splendid view of the surrounding streets; the Grand Sablon, the area containing both the flamboyant Gothic structure of the Church of Our Lady of Sablon and the Sunday antique market and lastly the Petit Sablon, a square surrounded by Gothic columns, which support 48 small bronze statues commemorating medieval Brussels guilds. The elegant, 19th-century houses in the Saint-Gilles area, designed by architect Victor Horta, are masterpieces of the Belgian art nouveau style.
Attractions on the outskirts of the city include the Atomium, the futuristic, atom-shaped aluminium tower built for the 1958 World Fair; the Royal Castle at Laeken, the town residence of the Royal Family; the State Botanical Gardens; the site of the Battle of Waterloo, 18km (11 miles) to the south of Brussels; the Forest of Soignes and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren which houses a large collection of Central African art.
Bruges: Like Antwerp, this is a city whose fortunes in the Middle Ages were built on the cloth trade. Best visited on foot, Bruges, with its cobbled streets and canals, is sometimes described as the Venice of the North. It offers a variety of attractions including boat trips and walks along the canals and the Lake of Love, which in the Middle Ages was the city's internal port; the 14th-century Town Hall featuring a façade decorated with bas-reliefs and statues of a Biblical nature; the Cathedral of the Holy Saviour, a fine example of 13th-century Gothic architecture and home to many treasures; and the Grote Markt which was formerly the commercial hub of the city, overlooked by the 83m (272ft) octagonal Belfry with its carillon. Bruges' several museums include the Groeninge Museum which houses a comprehensive and facinating collection of six centuries of Flemish paintings, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The museum's many highlights include the world famous collection of Flemish Primitive art and a wide range of Renaissance and Baroque masters. The Memling Museum , housed in the medieval Saint John's Hospital, is dedicated to the painter Hans Memling. The city is close to some excellent beaches and the fertile Polder region, dotted with abbeys and parks.
Antwerp: A busy city on the banks of the River Scheldt and once one of the most powerful urban centres in Europe. Today Antwerp is characterised by its thriving diamond industry and its successes in the field of petrochemicals. The inhabitants, or Sinjoors as they are known, like to perpetuate the city's Baroque image, largely created by the wealth of buildings from the time of Rubens. Well worth a visit is the Cathedral of Our Lady (14th-16th century), both for its architecture - in the Brabant Gothic style - and for the Rubens masterpieces which it houses. Other attractions include the Grote Markt, or Main Square, containing the Town Hall built by Cornelius de Vriendt in the 1560s and the Brabo fountain commemorating the legend of the city's origin; the Steen, a 12th-century fortress now housing the National Maritime Museum; the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, home to what is arguably the world's finest collection of works by Peter Paul Rubens, as well as 1000 works by other old masters and 1500 more recent works; the Plantin-Moretus Museum, where Plantin's printing works were founded in the 16th century, with one of the few remaining copies of the Gutenberg Bible; Rubens' House, the magnificent 17th-century house where the painter lived and worked, containing works by the painter and his associates; and many other museums and churches.
Ghent: This former cloth town was once the capital of the Counts of Flanders and was the birthplace of the Emperor Charles V. Although an industrial city, Ghent boasts many historic buildings, including three abbeys. Attractions include St Bavo's Cathedral, place of Charles V's baptism and home to The
Adoration of the Mystical Lamb, the Van Eyck brothers' masterpiece; the Town Hall, where the Treaty of Ghent was signed in 1576; the Castle of the Counts, a medieval castle surrounded by the Lieve canal; the 15th-century Cloth Hall; the medieval town centre with its old guild houses; the Museum of Fine Arts, and the newly renovated
Museum of Industrial Archaeology. The Sunday morning Flower Market is worth a visit.
Liège: A major city, situated on the banks of the Meuse, with many reminders of a colourful and affluent past. Liège was independent for much for much of its history, ruled over by prince-bishops for 800 years. Attractions include the Church of St James, an old abbey church of mixed architecture, including an example of the Meuse Romanesque style, with fine Renaissance stained glass; the Cathedral of St Paul, founded in the 10th century and boasting a priceless treasury; the 18th-century Town Hall; the Curtius Museum housing a large collection of coins, Liège furniture and porcelain; St Lambert Square, with the Perron fountain of the city's symbol; the Museum of Modern Art, displaying the works of Corot, Monet, Picasso, Gauguin and Chagall to name but a few; and the Romanesque Church of St Bartholemew, particularly notable for its copper baptismal fonts. The creator of fictional detective Maigret, Georges Simenon, came from Liège.
Tournai: One of the oldest cities in Belgium, the city dates back to the Gallo-Roman era. In common with many other Belgian cities, much was destroyed during the two World Wars, although several important buildings have survived while others have been restored. Attractions include the Cathedral of Our Lady (12th century); the Belfry, which is the oldest in Belgium; the Bridge of Holes, a relic of the old fortified rampart which spanned the Scheldt; the Museum of Fine Arts, with works by Rubens and Bruegel; the imposing castle of Antoing, parts of which date back to the 5th century; and most recently, Minibel, 28km (17 miles) outside the city at the Château of Beloeil, a display of scaled-down reproductions of many of Belgium's most interesting treasures and curiosities (including the Brussels Town Hall and Grand Palace, the Bruges Belfry, the Castle of Counts and the Coo Falls).
For more information on these and other cities of historic and cultural interest, consult the Flanders Travel Guide and the Ardennes brochure available from the Tourism Brussels-Ardennes/Tourism Flanders-Brussels.
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