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Artothèque
Ever thought it was a pity that all those items sat in museum storerooms, never seeing the light of day? Well, this innovative space in a former convent chapel lets you examine a wide range of objects from various museum basements, with interactive screens (in French, but staff can
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Turnhout Begijnhof
Hidden behind big wooden gates, one of Belgium’s loveliest begijnhoven loops round a long, narrow garden set with grotto, church and religious statues. Its tiled brick houses have lanterns and matching shutters, and behind a sheep-mown lawn area is the excellent Begijnhof Museum .
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Westmalle Abbey & Café Trappisten
Despite its pleasant setting, surrounded by bucolic hiking trails, the monastic complex that produces Westmalles famous Trappist beers looks more like a prison than an abbey – except that the walls are built to keep visitors out. At the abbeys own tavern, sample the two classic bre
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Maison Cauchie
Built in 1905, this stunning house was the home of architect and painter Paul Cauchie (1875–1952), and its sgraffito façade, adorned with graceful female figures, is one of the most beautiful in Brussels. It looks like a Klimt painting transformed into architecture. A petition save
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Botrange Nature Centre
Hidden 300m west of the Eupen–Bütenbach road (1km south of Signal de Botrange and 2.5km north of Ovifat), this information centre has a museum that explains the Hautes Fagnes’ evolution through a geological ‘time tunnel’ and examines the long-term effects of sheep grazing, logging
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Ensor Museum
Pioneering expressionist painter James Ensor (1860–1945) lived and worked for almost 40 years in the house that forms this attractive little museum. Its ground floor is presented as a 19th-century souvenir shop, much as in Ensor’s time. The cabinets full of crustacea, skulls, mask
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Musée dArt Réligieux et dArt Mosan
Just steps away from the Museum of Walloon Life, is the excellent Musée dArt Réligieux et dArt Mosan. Spanning several floors, this museum is chock-full of well-preserved religious relics and paintings from the region. Start on the 3rd floor - home to glowing 16th-century statues o
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MIAT
In a five-floor, 19th-century mill-factory building, this thought-provoking museum celebrates Ghent’s history of textile production and examines the social effects of 250 years of industrialisation. A very extensive collection of heavy mechanical weaving equipment comes deafeningly
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PAM Ename
Ename is now a drab suburban village, 3km northeast of Oudenaade. But in AD 925 the site was one of three main defence posts along the border between pre-medieval France and Ottonian Germany (the others were Antwerp and Valenciennes). Later it was home to a vast abbey, reduced to s
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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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Ramparts
Ypres is unusual in that it has retained extensive sections of its Vaubanesque city fortifications. These sturdy brick-faced walls line the town’s southeastern moat and are topped by pleasant gardens. The tourist office’s free Ramparts Route leaflet introduces a dozen of its histor
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Huis de Lalaing
This rococo-style historic mansion was reputedly the birthplace of Charles Quint’s illegitimate daughter, Margaret (Margaretha) of Palma, who later became governor of the Spanish Netherlands (1559–67). Today it hosts changing exhibits but is most interesting for its working tapestr
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Musée du Doudou
Head through the Hôtel de Ville on the Grand Place to reach this museum, dedicated to Mons riotous Ducasse festival . All aspects of this curious event, as well as background on St George, Ste Waudru and dragons, are covered in entertaining interactive fashion, and there are intere
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Manneken Pis
Brussels isnt the only city in which a little boy statue relieves himself. Indeed many locals insist that Geraardsbergens Manneken Pis is the original. The gently dribbling fountain is in a corner of the main square fronting the turreted 1893 town hall, which adopts a medieval fant
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Timmermans
Works by renowned local artists include some fine pre-Raphaelite-style canvases by Isidore Opsomer (1878–1967), notably the 1900 painting of Jesus hanging out in Lier. Upstairs the museums focus is on writer Felix Timmermans (1886–1947), whose 1916 novel Pallieter recast Lier folk
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Kasteel van Horst
Ringed by a reflective moat, picture-perfect, medieval Kasteel van Horst enjoys a delightful rural setting. The lovely grounds are free to visit even when the interior is closed. Drawbridge-facing café -restaurant Streekgasthof Wagenhuis is great for a drink or afternoon ice cream,
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Église Collégiale St
This large Rhenish-style church has twin Saxon-style towers and a cream-and-cerise exterior. It houses a famous 1118 baptismal font that’s one of the world’s most celebrated pieces of Mosan art; the great brass bowl was rescued from St-Lambert’s Cathedral when it was demolished in
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Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof
The area’s main German WWI cemetery is smaller than Tyne Cot but arguably more memorable, amid oak trees and trios of squat, mossy crosses. Some 44,000 corpses were grouped together here, up to 10 per granite grave slab, and four eerie silhouette statues survey the site. Entering
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Fondation Jacques Brel
Chansonnier Jacques Brel (1929–78) made his debut in 1952 at a cabaret in his native Belgium and shot to fame in Paris, where he was a contemporary of Édith Piaf and co, though his songs continued to hark back to the bleak ‘flat land’ of his native country. This dedicated archive c
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Diamant
An astounding 80% of the worlds uncut diamonds are traded in Antwerp. Four dour exchange buildings lie along heavily guarded, pedestrianised Hoveniersstraat and Schupstraat, which are also home to Indian banks, specialist transportation companies, diamond boilers and the industry’s
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