What makes Brussels
Comics
Hergé, the creator of Tintin, was born in Etterbeek in 1907. The Belgian Comic Strip Center occupies a former department store designed by Horta, and dozens of comic murals cover the city's walls.
Surrealism and Art Nouveau
René Magritte lived in Jette for twenty-four years. Horta, Hankar and Strauven made Brussels a capital of Art Nouveau, and Josef Hoffmann's Stoclet Palace heralds Art Deco.
Gueuze, fries and chicory
Gueuze and lambic, spontaneously fermented beers of the Senne valley, have been brewed at Cantillon since 1900. Fries, waffles, chicory, mussels and speculoos complete the picture.
Folklore
Manneken Pis owns more than a thousand costumes. The Ommegang re-enacts the procession of 1549. The Meyboom, said to date back to 1308, plants a maypole every 9 August. At the Toone puppet theatre, they speak the dialect of the Marolles.
From Brel to Stromae
Jacques Brel was born in Schaerbeek in 1929. Toots Thielemans, Angèle and Stromae followed. Couleur Café and the Nuits Botanique set the rhythm of the seasons.