Grand Place

Step from a narrow lane into a great square and stop short: on every side, tall guild houses crowned with gilded statues and scrolls rise around a soaring Gothic town hall, the whole enclosure glittering with gold. This is the Grand Place, the central square of Brussels and one of the most beautiful in Europe.

The square has been the heart of the city for many centuries, its marketplace and civic centre, ringed by the houses of the old trade guilds and the seat of city government. The buildings you see, though, mostly date from a rebuilding after a great bombardment in the late seventeenth century.

When a French army shelled the city in the 1690s, much of the square was destroyed, and the guilds rebuilt their houses grander than before, in a few short years, in an exuberant mix of styles heavy with gold and sculpture. That burst of rebuilding gives the square its remarkable unity and richness.

The grandest building is the Gothic town hall, its tall, delicate stone tower rising far above the square, topped by a gilded figure. It is the oldest major building on the square and the one fixed point around which everything else was rebuilt.

Facing it stands a neo-Gothic hall, once the king's house, now the city museum, and between them the guild houses crowd the other sides, each with its own name, emblem, and gilded decoration recalling the trade that built it.

The detail is the wonder. Almost every surface carries carving, statues, gilding, and inscriptions, so the square rewards slow looking, picking out the symbols and figures on house after house, best of all when the low sun or the night lighting catches the gold.

Every other year, in late summer, the square is carpeted with a vast design made entirely of cut flowers, a spectacular event that draws huge crowds, and at other times it hosts markets, concerts, and a great winter display.

The square is ringed with cafes and chocolate shops, and the lanes leading off it are full of restaurants, so it is a place to sit with a coffee or a beer and take in the architecture as much as to walk through.

It is recognised as a World Heritage Site, valued as a uniquely complete and harmonious example of a grand European market square, and it remains the symbolic and tourist heart of the city.

The Grand Place sits at the very centre of the old town, so almost every walk through the historic city passes through or near it, and it makes the natural starting point for exploring Brussels on foot.

A few practical notes. The square is free and always open; come early for it near-empty, or after dark when the buildings are lit and the gold glows. Step into the town hall or the city museum to go deeper, and use the square as your base.

Stand in the middle of the square and turn slowly, taking in the gilded houses and the soaring tower on every side, and the wealth and pride of the old trading city surrounds you. When you slip back into a side lane for a chocolate or a beer, the glow of the gold stays with you.