Wednesday, 8 February 2023
The Brussels Times Magazine

Hidden Belgium

Hidden Belgium: La Bonne Chère

It used to be called L’idiot du Village, the Village Idiot. Hidden down a cobbled lane in the Marolles, it was an intimate restaurant filled with antiques.

Wednesday, 8 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: The House where Victor Hugo hid from an angry mob

One of the last texts Victor Hugo wrote in the house on Place des Barricades was titled To the citizens of the United States of Europe. ‘Belgians, one day there will be a United States of Europe.’

Tuesday, 7 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: Leuven Central

The volkscafé Leuven Central in the heart of Leuven opened in 2015 in an abandoned corner cafe. It gets its name from a plaque nearby that marks the official centre of Leuven.

Monday, 6 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: Van Eetvelde Mansion

Horta knew from the moment they met that he had found his ideal client. ‘I presented him with the most ambitious plan I had ever drawn up.’

Sunday, 5 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: The Smurf mural

Unable to remember the word for salt cellar, he asked his friend to pass the Schtroumph.

Saturday, 4 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: A La Bécasse

The old Brussels cafe A La Bécasse has been in this spot since 1877.

Friday, 3 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: Essentiel

It was a bit of a niche brand until last December, when Netflix released the trailer for the third season of Emily in Paris. Fans spotted Emily wearing one of the Antwerp brand’s bright, floppy sweaters. Not once (at 3 secs), but again (at 18 secs) and again (24 secs).

Thursday, 2 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: The African liberation song composed in a Brussels guest house

Just a few seconds into the song, Africans and European stood up and began dancing to the beat of Congolese rumba. The lyrics (in Lingala and French) celebrated the imminent independence of the Congo guaranteed by the talks.

Wednesday, 1 February 2023
Hidden Belgium: Postbar

They hope their initiative will revive the old habit of writing cards in cafes.

Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: Horta Metro Station

On 30 January 1964, Le Soir newspaper announced that the Maison du Peuple ‘is definitely condemned.’ It was the end of a long battle to save Victor Horta’s 1890s masterpiece, possibly the world’s greatest Art Nouveau building.

Monday, 30 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: The Brussels lane that no one knows

It’s just off the Sablon square in Brussels. But almost no one ever walks down the narrow cobbled lane called Rue des Six Jeunes Hommes, The Street of the Six Young Boys.

Sunday, 29 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: Librebook

Head to Librebook in Brussels’ Matonge district to discover the exceptional richness of European fiction, art and political thought.

Saturday, 28 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: Elzenwalle

It might be the strangest castle in Belgium.

Friday, 27 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: The Modest Home of a Communist Composer

First sung in a Lille café in 1888, the song was called L’internationale. De Geyter’s composition was eventually adopted as the official hymn of the international working class.

Thursday, 26 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: The Schaerbeek street named after the fastest man alive

Born in Schaerbeek in 1868, Camille Jenatzy (Le diable rouge) was a man who loved danger.

Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: The Brit who built Belgium

His statue stands in the middle of Place du Luxembourg in the heart of Brussels’ European Quarter.

Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: The politician who didn’t want women to vote

A sculpture stands in the middle of Place Saint-Boniface in Brussels. As you sit drinking a beer on one of the café terraces, you might be curious to know who it represents.

Monday, 23 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: Kleinblatt

For more than 100 years, people have been coming to this kosher bakery in Antwerp’s Jewish quarter for sesame seed bread, bagels, Sachertorte and cheesecake.

Saturday, 21 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: La Maison de Verre

The Maison de Verre at Rue Jules Lejeune 69 is an exceptional example of the modernist movement.

Friday, 20 January 2023
Hidden Belgium: The Belgian princess who was Empress of Mexico

The daughter of Leopold I, and sister of Leopold II, Charlotte had married Maximilian of Austria, a handsome Hapsburg noble.

Thursday, 19 January 2023

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