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Museum Mayer van den Bergh
This 16th-century town house was actually constructed in 1904 and was one of the first museums in the world to be built around a single collection. Fritz Mayer van den Berghs collection is indeed as rich as that of many a national gallery and includes Bruegel’s brilliantly grotesqu
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De Lambiek
For fans of the Brussels areas trademark gueuze and lambic beers theres a sparkling new showpiece attraction. De Lambiek explains the beers qualities and production methods, then allows a tasting of a range of local speciality brews that can prove hard to find anywhere else. Alsemb
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Grasbrug
To admire Ghent’s towers and gables at their most photogenic, stand just west of the little Grasbrug bridge at dusk. It’s a truly gorgeous scene, though the appealing waterfront facades of Graslei aren’t as old as they look – these ‘medieval’ warehouses and townhouses were largely
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Museum Dr Guislain
Hidden away in an 1857 neo-Gothic psychiatric hospital, this enthralling mental-health museum takes visitors on a trilingual, multicultural journey through the history of psychiatry, from gruesome Neolithic trepanning to contemporary brain scans via cage beds, straightjackets, shac
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KMSKA
KMSKA is one of Europes finest art galleries, but it will be closed until the end of 2017 while it undergoes a total renovation. Elements of its superb collection of Belgian greats from Van Eyck to Wouters can be seen, however, at various regional exhibitions and at the Rockoxhuis
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Diamantmuseum
While Antwerp is now the centre of the diamond industry, the idea of polishing the stones with diamond ‘dust’ was originally pioneered in Bruges. This is the theme developed by this slick museum which also displays a lumpy, greenish 252-carat raw diamond and explains how the catchp
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Kortrijk 1302
This modern ‘experience’ museum explains the background events surrounding the classic Battle of the Golden Spurs , but despite an English-language audio guide (essential) and multiple video screens, it can feel disappointingly static and rather unsatisfying for non-Flemish visitor
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Musée de la Rubanerie
Nearby on the Belgian side, the unexpectedly fascinating museum celebrates Comines’ economic mainstay since 1719, the ribbon-making industry. On weekends, passionately knowledgeable museum staff set the antique machinery in motion and use cunningly devised model mechanisms to expla
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Gruuthuse
The museum takes its name from the flower and herb mixture (gruut) that used to flavour beer before the cultivation of hops. The romantic heraldic entrance in a courtyard of ivy-covered walls and dreaming spires is arguably more interesting than the rambling, somewhat unsatisfying
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Hôtel de Ville
At night the 1719 City Hall glows lugubriously in its blood-red spotlights. By day it commands Liège’s charming, if modestly sized, original main square, Place du Marché, where trees shelter two elegant well-fountains and a series of street cafes beneath a fine row of traditional h
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Euro Space Center
At junction 23 of the E411, the Euro Space Center is a family-oriented mix of fun and education including a 75-minute series of movies and gadgets followed by a five-minute simulator ride. For €6 extra a bungee-style contraption offers the sensation of moon walking at one-sixth of
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Suikermuseum
At one of Belgium’s most inspired museums, the interactive, witty and surrealistically metaphorical presentations include a post-natal hospital ward for sugar beets, a cartoon encounter with Queen Bee and a ‘painting’ gallery with a talking Napoleon. Suddenly sugar lumps seem fasci
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Brouwerij De Halve Maan
Founded in 1856, though there has been a brewery on the site since 1564, this is the last family brouwerij (brewhouse) in central Bruges. Multilingual 45-minute guided visits (€8, 11am-4pm, to 5pm Sat) depart on the hour. They include a tasting but can sometimes be rather crowded.
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Kantcentrum
The Kantcentrum displays a collection of lace in a row of interlinked old cottages. The centre’s main attraction is that in the afternoons (2pm to 5pm) you can watch bobbin lace being made by informal gatherings of experienced lace-makers and their students who gather to chat and w
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Hôtel Van Eetvelde
A great highlight of an ARAU tour is getting into the otherwise closed Hôtel Van Eetvelde. While the outside of this building is not Brussels’ most gripping, its interior is a Horta masterpiece (built 1895–1901) studded with exotic timbers and sporting a central glass dome infused
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OLV
Admission to this small historical church-hospital complex is free with a St-Janshospitaal museum ticket. Ring the bell to gain entry and you’ll find fine 15th- to 16th-century art. The lushly baroque church section houses the reliquary of St-Idesbaldus and a polychrome wooden reli
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Bokrijk Openluchtmuseum
One of Europe’s largest open-air museums, Bokrijk Openluchtmuseum offers a nostalgic look at Flanders’ past, with over 100 original old buildings reassembled here in 1958. Hourly Genk–Hasselt trains (10 minutes, hourly) stop 500m south of the southern entrance, but hourly bus 1 fro
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Trésor
The treasury museum of Huys collegiate church is remarkable for its four fabulous chest-reliquaries of Mosan artisanship, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries.
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Berlaymont Building
The European Commission, the EU’s sprawling bureaucracy, centres on the vast, four-winged Berlaymont building. Built in 1967, it’s striking but by no means beautiful, despite a billion-euro rebuild between 1991 and 2004 that removed asbestos-tainted construction materials. Informat
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Beffroi
Belgium’s oldest belfry is 72m high with a narrow 257-step spiral staircase that becomes even narrower higher up. Theres a good multilingual display on the history and significance of belfries as symbols of civic liberties partway up, but otherwise the main attractions are the bell
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