Brussels

Mention was already made of Brussels around 695. In the 12th century the small town became an important stop on the trade route from Bruges and Ghent to Cologne. In 1695 Brussels was attacked by general Villeroy of King Louis XIV of France. A bombardment destroyed the city’s heart: more than 4,000 houses were set on fire, including the medieval buildings on Grand Place. In 1830, the Belgian revolution took place in Brussels. On July 21, 1831, Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians, ascended the throne, undertaking the destruction of the city walls and the construction of many buildings. Under Leopold II, the city underwent many more changes.
Places to see are:
Grand Place The Grand-Place is Brussels’ top tourist attraction justified by the Gothic magnificence of the Town Hall and the Baroque exuberance of the late seventeenth-century guildhouses with the sculptures of Peter van Dievoet surrounding the square. The Royal Palace of Laeken and the Royal Palace of Belgium.
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium combining four interconnected sections of old masters and modern art collections. Together they make up Belgium’s most complete collection of fine art with works by, amongst many, Pieter Bruegel, Rubens, Paul Delvaux and René Magritte.On the site of the Heizel are the Atomium, one of the symbols of Belgium, a remnant of the 1958 World exposition in Brussels, and Mini-Europe, a park which hosts miniature models of famous European buildings. Manneken Pis: a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a little boy urinating into the fountain’s basin.
Several churches, such as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg, and the Saint Michael and Saint Gudula Cathedral.
The Jubilee Arch
La Bourse, the location of the stock market Euronext in Belgium.
La Monnaie, an opera house. Horta house