We won't burden you with chauvinistic propaganda, but Belgium is truly a treasure-trove for
art-lovers. A lifetime may just be enough to see all the available marvels...

Take Brussels for instance. Is there really an excuse for not seeing :

	the Grand-Place, with its splendid gothic and renaissance buildings (and, very accessorily, Manneken Pis, the smallest and oldest citizen of Brussels, ever peeing since 1619 from his pedestal)
	the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (ancient and modern), with works by Van der Weyden, Bruegel, Rubens, Jordaens, Ensor, Magritte (the largest collection in the world), Delvaux, Alechinsky, etc.
	the newly renovated Cathedral (gothic)
	a few of the hundred façades in Art Nouveau style
	the Horta Museum
	the superb Musical Instruments Museum
	the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire.

Don't miss the David and Alice Van Buuren Museum, a real gem, and the Antoine Wiertz Museum, where the size, the bombast and the craziness of the paintings will overwhelm you and probably make you laugh.

That's it for Brussels, but it is only a beginning, because you will irresistibly be drawn to :

Bruges, the Venice of the North, almost entirely medieval. See the city, its canals (boat-trips), the Groeninge Museum (essential), the Memling Museum, the Cathedral (where one can see the only statue by Michelangelo north of the Alps).

Ghent, with its beautiful ancient centre. An absolute must is the Cathedral, where the Ghent Altarpiece, including the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, by the brothers Van Eyck, should be religiously admired. A city to discover, again and again.

Antwerp, city of Rubens. The Grote Markt (Grand-Place), the Cathedral, the House of Rubens, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (Rubens, Ensor, Rik Wouters, the Flemish Expressionists) and the many late gothic and baroque churches are only a few of the essential cultural landmarks.

You will find gems in Liège, Tournai, Namur, Mons. But don't miss Leuven (Louvain) with its splendid Town Hall, old houses and churches, and its Groot Begijnhof.

We recommend the purchase of the green Michelin guide for Belgium (and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg). It gives essential and reliable information. Bon voyage!

Famous Belgian painters of the past ---- Belgian museums, great and small