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Since moving to its new home in a classic Art Nouveau department store, perched on a ridge overlooking the city, “Le MIM” has become one of Brussels’ must-see sights. The multifarious exhibits are enhanced by the pleasure of hearing their sounds through headphones (see Musée des Instruments de Musique).

Teddy bears, dolls, miniature farmyards, rocking horses – this toy museum is an Aladdin’s cave of delights with exhibits from the 1850s to the present (see Musée du Jouet).

With dozens of trams, ancient and modern, lining the silent platforms of an old tram depot, a visit to this museum is a bit like wandering into one of Delvaux’s Surrealist paintings. It has far more appeal than its subject matter may suggest (see Musée du Tram Bruxellois).

The full artistic potential of Art Nouveau is apparent in this museum – formerly the house and offices of Victor Horta, the father of Art Nouveau architecture (see Musée Horta, Brussels).

The studio of the 19th-century painter Antoine Wiertz reveals him as an artist of great self-delusion. Offended by rejection in Paris, he wanted to see Brussels usurp Paris as the capital of Europe. The fact that the European Parliament building is on his doorstep seems spookily visionary (see Musée Antoine Wiertz).

Brussels’ royal museum of fine art holds rich collections of Brueghel, Rubens and Jordaens – also work by Ensor, Magritte, Delvaux, Wouters and the Symbolists (see Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts).

Belgium’s collection of historic national and international treasures is housed in this palatial building. It includes an impressive array of medieval church treasures (in the Salle aux Trésors), tapestries, Art Nouveau sculpture and jewellery, antique costumes and archaeological finds. One of several museums in the Parc du Cinquantenaire.

A rich collection of paintings, objets d’art and antiques – the product of the drive and wealth of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh (see Museum Mayer van den Bergh).

Within a century of Gutenberg’s breakthrough in European printing by means of movable type, this 16th-century printing house had become a leader of the publishing revolution. Among the presses and engraving plates, it’s still possible to detect the ferment of ideas, and the possibilities of the spread of knowledge, that printing promised (see Museum Plantin-Moretus).

The location of this museum of contemporary art, in the up-and-coming former dockland area in the south of the city, sets the tone for what lies inside. A ground-breaking gallery with a growing reputation (see MUHKA).