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Cycling is big in Belgium, and no name ranks higher than Eddie Merckx (born 1945), five times winner of the Tour de France (1969–72 and 1974).

After massive renovation, the 1730s Handelsbeurs concert hall has re-emerged as a major new venue, with a wonderfully spacious café.

This large, atmospheric church is like something out of a Brueghel painting – aptly so, since Pieter Brueghel the Elder is buried here.

The 15th-century church of the Guild of Crossbowmen is a beautiful example of Brabantine Gothic style, lit by large expanses of stained glass (see Sablon).

This charming 18th-century church, with its Roman-style façade and lantern bell tower, sits on the top of the Coudenberg, the aristocratic enclave of the Upper Town. It is attached to the Royal Palace, and has seats for the royal family in the choir. During the anticlerical days of the French occupation in the 1790s, it was converted first to a “Temple of Reason” and then a “Temple of Law” before reconsecration in 1802.

One of Brussels’ most distinctive churches occupies a prominent position overlooking the Place Royale: its bell-tower apart, it looks more like a Roman temple than a Christian church (see Église Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg).

The exuberant Flemish Baroque façade of this church contrasts with its history as the focal point of a béguine community of women. Something of their charity and moderation still pervades the interior (see Église St-Jean-Baptiste au Béguinaeg).

Béguinages were pious institutions for single women (see Bruges). This one was built in the 17th-century. The façade is full of Baroque detail, while inside, the mood is one of calm. Note the tombstones of the béguines set in the floor.

The Egmond feels like a world apart, set in its own little tree-shaded park next to the Minne-water, in the south of the town. The step-gabled façades and manor-house style give it a neo-baronial air.

Post-Impressionist painter (1849–1924) famous for rural scenes of sparkling clarity, achieved through a technique that he called “Luminism”.