Famous Landmarks in Brussels
A Gothic civic core, a neoclassical park arch, and a lone steel giant from 1958.
Brussels' most recognisable buildings cluster in two places. Around the medieval market square stand the Gothic Town Hall, finished in the mid-15th century, and a cathedral rebuilt in the same style over the following centuries; a small bronze fountain figure stands a short walk away. East of the centre, a triple neoclassical arch of 1905 anchors a formal park where broad avenues converge, raised while the young Belgian state was investing in monumental civic architecture. To the north, on its own, rises a structure from a different era: nine steel spheres built for the 1958 world's fair, still without an equivalent nearby. Carved Gothic stone, dressed neoclassical stone, and bare steel sit within a few kilometres of each other, each marking a distinct century of building.
Atomium
1958 · André and Jean Polak
Nine mirror-finished, stainless-steel spheres 18 metres across, joined by tubes carrying stairs, escalators and a lift, arranged in the pattern of a magnified iron crystal and rising 102 metres on angled support tubes.
Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn together with architects André and Jean Polak, it was built as the centrepiece of a 1958 world's fair, conceived as a tribute to scientific progress and to Belgian engineering skill. Its nine spheres, linked by tubes carrying stairs, escalators and a lift, hold exhibition halls and a restaurant at the top with a panoramic view. It was completely renovated between 2004 and 2006 by the firms Jacques Delens and BESIX.
- Its nine spheres form the shape of an iron crystal's unit cell magnified 165 billion times.
- It underwent a complete renovation between 2004 and 2006.
Photo: Zairon (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Brussels Town Hall
1401–1455 · Jan van Ruysbroeck
Its finely carved Gothic stone facade, with pointed windows and pinnacles in the Brabantine style, contrasts with the plainer classicist wings added at the rear three centuries later; it is the only medieval building left standing on its square, facing a neo-Gothic building across the way.
Erected between 1401 and 1455, it is the only medieval building remaining on its market square and is considered a masterpiece of civil Gothic, specifically Brabantine Gothic, architecture. Jacob van Thienen began the work, and Jan van Ruysbroeck is credited with later contributions to it. Three classicist wings were added at the rear in the 18th century, and Victor Jamaer and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc were both involved in restoration during the 19th century. Since 1998 it has formed part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with its square.
- It is the only medieval building still standing on its square.
- Its three rear wings, added in the 18th century, are built in a plainer classicist style than the Gothic front.
Photo: Michielverbeek (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Manneken Pis
1619 · Jérôme Duquesnoy the Elder
Just 55.5 centimetres tall, it shows a naked boy standing over a fountain basin, continuously relieving himself into the water; the figure on site is a replica cast in 1965, the original kept in a museum, and it is regularly dressed in one of roughly a thousand different costumes.
Though a figure at this spot is attested as early as the mid-15th century, its present design was created by the Brabantine sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy the Elder and installed in 1619; its blue-stone rocaille niche followed in 1770. The statue has been stolen or damaged repeatedly over its history, so since 1965 a replica has stood in its place while the original is kept in the Brussels City Museum. Its extensive wardrobe is now shown in a dedicated museum.
- Its wardrobe runs to around a thousand different costumes, now shown in a dedicated museum that opened in 2017.
- The statue on site since 1965 is a replica; the original is kept in a city museum.
Photo: Myrabella (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula
1226–1519
Built of pale stone in the Brabantine Gothic style, its interior mixes late-Gothic and Baroque chapels with neo-Gothic stained-glass windows added during a 19th-century restoration, and it is fitted with two pipe organs and large church bells.
The church began as a Romanesque building in the 11th century, replacing an earlier chapel, and was rebuilt in the Gothic style over the following centuries, reaching largely its present form by the 16th century. Its interior later gained late-Gothic and Baroque chapels, along with neo-Gothic stained-glass windows installed during a 19th-century restoration. Designated a historic monument in 1936, it was raised to cathedral status only in 1962, and now serves jointly with St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen.
- It only became a cathedral in 1962, centuries after the building itself was largely complete.
- It houses two pipe organs and large church bells.
Photo: Donaldytong (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Cinquantenaire Arcade
1905 · Gédéon Bordiau
The centrepiece is a triple arch carrying a bronze quadriga: a chariot drawn by horses and driven by a female figure raising a flag, set within a park at the point where two long straight avenues converge.
Raised in 1905 to a design by Gédéon Bordiau, who died the year before its completion, the arcade forms the centrepiece of a park in eastern Brussels. Its triple arch is topped by a bronze quadriga showing a female charioteer personifying a province and raising the national flag. The monument faces the city centre along an avenue that passes through the Leopold Quarter toward the Royal Quarter, and on its other side opens onto the avenue leading to the former Palace of the Colonies, now the Royal Museum for Central Africa.
- Its designer, Gédéon Bordiau, died in 1904, the year before the arch was completed.
- It stands where two avenues meet, one leading toward a former colonial palace, the other toward the seat of national government.
Photo: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0)
History
Brussels began as a small settlement on the river Senne and grew around the market square known today as the Grand-Place. Its Town Hall went up in stages between 1401 and 1455, becoming the square's only surviving medieval building, while the nearby cathedral's Romanesque origins were rebuilt in Gothic form over the following centuries, reaching largely their present state by the 16th century. A bronze fountain figure, redesigned in 1619, added a smaller, informal landmark to the same old quarter. After Belgium's growth as a young independent state through the 19th century, the city added grand set-piece architecture away from its centre: a triple triumphal arch rose in 1905 at the heart of a new formal park to the east. In 1958, the city hosted a world's fair, leaving behind a single large modernist structure of steel spheres on its northern edge.