From Flemish Masters to a pantheon to plastic, the Belgian capital has seven centuries of art and design
Museum of Ancient Art
A bit French but not France, a little Dutch but not Holland, Belgium has historically marked the transition from Latin to northern cultures, making Brussels a fitting centre for the European Union. With one of Europe’s powerhouse national art collections, an entire museum dedicated to its most famous artist, more Art Nouveau buildings than anywhere else and a vibrant design industry, it has much to offer culture-vultures. Throw in the Grand Place (Europe’s most beautiful square?), the Royal Saint Hubert Galleries (with Europe’s tallest shopping arcades) and the gleaming, silver Atomium (one of Europe’s most recognisable landmarks) and you can’t fail to come away impressed.
Atop the Mont des Arts (Arts Hill), the Old Masters Museum has a remarkable collection of paintings and sculptures from the 14th to the 18th centuries, including ground-breaking work by the Flemish Primitives and paintings by Flemish masters such as Bruegel, Rubens, Jordaens and Van Dyck as well as some masters from outside Belgium such as Tintoretto, Bosch and Rembrandt.
Bruegel’s ‘The Fall of the Rebel Angels’ (Museum of Ancient Art)
The museum’s Bruegel collection is the second largest in the world. (The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has the largest, since most of his paintings were bought by members of the ruling aristocracy of Bruegel’s time, the Austrian-based Habsburgs.) Bruegel is famous for his glorification of the landscape, depictions of rural life and of the humble peasant as the embodiment of Flemish identity, while his darker side reflected on the struggle between good and evil or contained critical social comment.
While Paris was the epicentre of the art world around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Brussels was also a thriving artistic hub. To illustrate the point, the Fin de Siècle Museum (in French, the period is known as the ‘end’ rather than the ‘turn’ of the century) showcases Belgian artists, sculptors and photographers who are less known internationally because they did not leave ‘provincial’ Brussels to make their name in Paris.
Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), ‘Des Caresses’, 1896, oil on canvas (Fin de Siècle Museum)
Covering the period 1868 to 1914, these include the symbolism of Fernand Khnopff and Leon Spilliaert, the hyper-realism of Henri de Braekeleer, the social realism of Constantin Meunier and the multi-disciplinary genius of Henry van de Velde and James Ensor. A selection of works by their international contemporaries, such as Paul Gauguin, Auguste Rodin, Pierre Bonnard and Alphonse Mucha, sets the Belgian scene in a wider context.
A giraffe in a wine glass? A limbless torso on a beach? An eagle wearing a jacket? It must be the Magritte Museum, which houses the world’s most extensive collection of works by the Surrealist, René Magritte (1898-1967), the most important Belgian painter of the 20th century who spent most of his life in Brussels. Over 200 works form a chronological and thematic journey through his life and work.
Magritte Museum
Famed for his subversive imagery, which anticipated Pop Art and conceptual art, the man in the bowler hat worked in a variety of media, including oils, gouaches, drawings, sculptures, painted objects and graphic art. The museum also has advertising posters, vintage photographs and films directed by Magritte himself. See also Meet Magritte, below.
Down the slope from the Mont des Arts is the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts (Beaux-Arts – get it?). Designed by Victor Horta (see Art Nouveau), the sprawling, multi-level building itself is a work of art, with galleries, a theatre and a cinema. The expansive exhibition spaces host up to ten shows a year and have featured the likes of Jeff Wall, Frida Kahlo, Gilbert and George, Prints in the Age of Bruegel and many others.
The Victor Horta-designed theatre in the Bozar Centre for the Arts
In the Parc du Cinquantenaire (named for the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence in 1880), the Art and History Museum is a vast, temple-like building housing art and artefacts from prehistory to the mid-8th century, including relics from Egypt, the Near East, Iran and classical antiquity. There are also non-European treasures from China, Asia, the Islamic world, Inuit culture and pre-Columbian central America and Oceania, while European decorative art includes tapestries, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, silverware, ceramics and glassware.
Art and History Museum
Located in a high-ceilinged, light-filled former power station, Centrale is the contemporary art centre of the City of Brussels. The whitewashed walls bring works by established and emerging national and international artists into sharp focus.
Only 150 metres from the Atomium, the towering silver symbol of Brussels (originally intended as the temporary centrepiece of the 1956 World’s Fair, but now a permanent feature), the Design Museum is dedicated to international 20th century and contemporary design. Located in a former trade mall, it includes permanent exhibitions dedicated to Belgium’s contribution to design and an exceptional collection which shows the impact of plastics on art and design through both everyday objects and limited edition productions. There is also a series of temporary exhibitions.
Art Nouveau
Brussels is the capital of Art Nouveau, and it only takes a few minutes strolling around the city to be struck by the legacy the movement left in its buildings. Practically everywhere you look there are ornately shaped facades, sculpted stonework and decorative wrought iron, all embellished with nature-inspired motifs. Art Nouveau flourished between 1890 and 1910 as a reaction against rampant industrialisation, and its airy, light-filled style was adopted in civic buildings and in the homes of a new middle class. Its influence spread as far as Antoni Gaudi in Spain and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Scotland.
Brussels boasts the father of Art Nouveau in Victor Horta. (You may arrive in the city at one of his creations, Central Station.) Horta’s private house is open to the public as the Horta Museum. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is poetry in architecture and interior design, with three floors merging harmoniously. No detail is too small, from door handles and keyholes to coat hooks and light bulbs – all matching the ubiquitous plant-like motifs.
Poetry in design in the Horta Museum
Meet Magritte
You can keep it surreal at a top Brussels hotel. A few minutes from the spectacular Grand-Place, perhaps Europe’s most beautiful city square, the Hotel Amigo welcomes art-lovers with a range of experiences and activities inspired by the great Belgian Surrealist René Magritte.
Bar Magritte in the Hotel Amigo
A four-hour guided tour offers a fascinating insight into Magritte’s life in Brussels. Highlights include: La Fleur en Papier Doré, once a gathering place for artists like Magritte and named Best Bar in Europe for 2025 by the European Bar Guide; the Place de Ninove, with its fountain sculpted in the shape of Magritte’s profile; the artist’s house, where he lived and worked for over two decades and which today serves as an exhibition space; Berger-Hozier, the paint shop where Magritte bought his materials; the Magritte Museum; the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, where Magritte trained; and the Théâtre Royal des Galeries inside the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert shopping arcade, where Magritte painted the cloud-filled ceiling.
In Bar Magritte your cocktail might be served in a bowler hat or pipe, both iconic symbols of the artist.
Afterward, you can enjoy a surreal experience at Bar Magritte in Hotel Amigo, the only bar in the world dedicated to the artist and listed in 2024 as one of Time Magazine’s World’s Greatest Places in 2024. You can choose from ten Magritte-inspired cocktails served in a glass shaped like a pipe or bowler hat, two enduring icons associated with the artist. The hotel even puts a Surrealist spin on afternoon tea with Le Joueur Gourmand, inspired by Magritte’s fascination with chess, with edible pieces in the form of miniature sweet and savoury treats served on a chessboard.
You can choose from ten Magritte-inspired cocktails in Bar Magritte.
Part of the prestigious Rocco Forte group, Hotel Amigo has 173 rooms and 19 suites. The lobby features 18th century Flemish wall tapestries and the original paving stones from the street outside. Depending on the room type, your room or suite might include ceramics, African fabrics, Magritte prints, Spanish metalwork or an over-sized wooden apple or pear sculpture, both famous Magritte symbols.