Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Brussels
Art Nouveau and the museums in six hours
The Magritte collection, the royal galleries, then the houses Horta built that started a movement.
The three-hour route does the Grand-Place and the arcades. This is the Brussels that mattered to the rest of Europe: Victor Horta invented Art Nouveau here in 1893, and four of his houses are UNESCO-listed and a tram ride from the centre. Pair them with the Magritte, because he lived here too and the city is still slightly embarrassed about how good he was.
The route, stop by stop
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Musée Magritte
Two hundred works in a dedicated wing, hung chronologically so you can watch him find the idea. The ticket includes the Old Masters next door, which is how most people see Bruegel's Fall of Icarus.
75 min here Walk here → -
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts
The Old Masters half: Bruegel, Rubens, van der Weyden, and a Flemish collection that would be the main draw in most capitals.
60 min here Walk here → -
Mont des Arts
The terraced garden between the museums and the lower town, and the standard photograph of Brussels looking down to the town hall spire.
20 min here Walk here → -
Horta Museum
Arrive by tram from the previous stop
Horta's own house and studio, kept as he built it in 1898. The stairwell is the reason to come and photography is not allowed, which is part of why it works.
70 min here Walk here → -
Hôtel Tassel
The house that started it, finished in 1893. Not open to the public, so this is a five-minute look at a facade — but it is the facade everything else came from.
20 min here Walk here → -
Avenue Louise
The boulevard the Art Nouveau clients lived on, now luxury retail, with several more Horta-era houses along the side streets off it.
30 min here Walk here →
More in Brussels
Every walking route in Brussels, or the full Brussels guide for where to stay and what a day costs.