10 Best Sights in Laeken and Schaerbeek, Brussels

Like a giant, shiny child's toy rising up out of a forest, the Atomium was created in 1958 as part of the World's Fair of Brussels. It's shaped like an atom, with an elevator taking you up the central axis where walkways link to the protruding spheres by escalators. One sphere contains a permanent exhibition about the building's history; the others are set aside for temporary displays on design and architecture. Audio guides in English are available and there are great views from the top sphere, known as the Panorama. 

This museum was originally an artist’s home. Sculptor Guillaume Charlier and his friend Henri Van Cutsem were avid art collectors and asked Victor Horta to convert two houses into one to contain their treasures. It’s an eclectic mix, with piles of decorative objects from the 18th to 20th centuries, an impressive collection of Belgian art, and Charlier’s own realistic works vying for attention.

Laeken is where you'll find the Royal Greenhouses, a glorious mid-19th-century mesh of steel and glass set within the grounds of the summer palace, where the Belgian royal family spends most of their time. It's only open to visitors for three weeks every spring (between April and May), but it's worth catching. The height of its winter garden, designed by Alphonse Balat, made it possible to plant palm trees for the first time in Belgium; the originals still stand here. 

The first house designed in Brussels by the architect Victor Horta (he'd done others in Ghent by this time) was built in 1893 for a friend, Eugene Autrique. It was to have "not a single luxury," and became the first manor house built by Horta, marking his early explorations in Art Nouveau. At the time, Schaerbeek was mostly agrarian, best known for the small, sour cherries used to brew kriek beers—a state almost unimaginable given its current urban sprawl. Having undergone extensive renovation to return it to its original state, the house is now a museum on Horta's early days, and holds the odd exhibition. 

Just a short stroll from the Atomium lies this kids' favorite, which is essentially a park full of scale models of important European monuments. The 350 monuments range from the Eiffel Tower to a model of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral that was said to have taken 24,000 hours to build. It's a slightly kitsch selfie wonderland.

Art from the fringes. Set in an old print house, this museum turns its lens on outsider, naive, and folk art in particular, though you'll find more traditional pieces as well among its rotating collection, 

As much a love letter to Belgian beer culture as a museum. It was started by one person donating 300 (empty) bottles of Belgian beer, then volunteers sought out all kinds of brewing paraphernalia. Now it has over 2,500 bottles and some 5,000-plus glasses, as well as endless signs, logos, bits of brewing equipment, and relics of breweries long since departed. It's only open two days a week (Wednesday and Saturday), and tickets include a tasting of Schaerbeekoise and Eizelskop beers. 

One of the prettiest stretches of parkland in Brussels made all the more welcome for being deep among the residential mélange of Schaerbeek. Its archways of cherry blossoms are particularly enchanting in spring. In summer there are free concerts and Glacier Cocozza, across the road, draws a queue all the way down the road for its ice creams. The park is best known for its Cherry Festival (last Sunday in June) when locals gather to compete in a highly competitive cherry-pit-spitting contest. 

Set in the Tour & Taxis building on the riverfront, the city's first computer-game museum only opened in 2020. Its collection charts the history of gaming from 1972, the launch of the Odyssey by Magnavox, to the present day, and elicits great waves of nostalgia among those who lived through this era. 

In 1835, Belgium established the first steam passenger railway on mainland Europe—it connected Brussels and Mechelen—and it was one of the first to establish a national railway network. Train World pays full homage to this illustrious railway history. Located in the hangars of Belgium's oldest functioning station, Schaerbeek, it contains 20 full-size locomotives, many of which you can clamber aboard and explore.