Brussels

Growing from a tenth-century settlement founded around 979 CE on Saint-Géry Island in the valley of the Senne River into the court capital of the fifteenth-century Dukes of Burgundy, the sixteenth-century Low Countries seat of Emperor Charles V, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Belgium since 1830, and the institutional heart of the European Union, Brussels (Bruxelles in French, Brussel in Dutch) is a city of striking architectural and cultural contrasts. Across the five-sided inner ring known as the Pentagon, topography divides the city into two distinct halves. Down in the former river valley of the Lower Town (Ville Basse) shines the UNESCO-listed Grand-Place (Grote Markt), where the 96-metre spire of the fifteenth-century Gothic Town Hall rises opposite the neo-Gothic King's House and more than thirty gilded Baroque guildhalls rebuilt within five years of the French bombardment of August 1695. Steps away stretch the 1847 glass barrel vault of the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, over 65 outdoor comic strip frescoes, and the former harbour quays of Place Sainte-Catherine. Climbing the landscaped terraces of the Mont des Arts leads to the neoclassical Upper Town (Ville Haute), home to the Royal Palace, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's canvases, the world's largest collection of René Magritte, and the antique squares of the Sablon. Beyond the inner ring lie the 1890s UNESCO Art Nouveau townhouses of Victor Horta in Saint-Gilles and Ixelles, the free parliamentary museums of the European Quarter, and the 102-metre stainless-steel spheres of the 1958 Atomium on the Heysel Plateau.

Fly into Brussels Airport (BRU) in Zaventem 12 km northeast of the centre and take the underground airport train to Brussels-Central in 17 to 20 minutes (or Express Bus 12 to the European Quarter), or arrive at Brussels-South (Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid) on direct high-speed Eurostar trains from London, Paris, and Amsterdam.

Choose a hotel in the Pentagon near Brussels-Central and the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert for effortless rail and museum access, around Place Sainte-Catherine and Dansaert for Flemish bistros and independent fashion, on the Sablon and Royal Quarter ridge for antique shops and chocolatiers, or in Ixelles and Saint-Gilles for leafy Art Nouveau streets.

Admire the gilded guildhalls and Gothic Town Hall on the Grand-Place and visit Manneken Pis, walk the 1847 Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and the Belgian Comic Strip Center, explore the Magritte Museum, Old Masters Museum, Musical Instruments Museum, and the Sablon, tour Victor Horta's UNESCO Art Nouveau houses, ride Metro Line 6 to the Atomium and Parc du Cinquantenaire, visit the House of European History and Parlamentarium, and take direct IC trains to Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp.

Order a paper cone of double-fried Belgian frites cooked in beef tallow at Maison Antoine or Frit Flagey, steaming pots of Zeeland moules-frites, slow-braised carbonnade flamande beef stew, North Sea grey-shrimp croquettes, crisp rectangular Brussels waffles, hand-filled chocolate pralines, and oak-aged lambic and gueuze (GUH-zuh) beers at Brasserie Cantillon.

Home to 19 bilingual municipalities, three UNESCO World Heritage architectural inscriptions, and UNESCO-listed Belgian beer culture and the Renaissance Ommegang pageant, Brussels blends Brabantine Gothic masonry, fin-de-siècle whiplash ironwork, Belgian surrealism, and the Franco-Belgian comic strip tradition known as the Ninth Art.