The original Manneken Pis
Duquesnoy's original bronze from 1619.
Myrabella — CC BY-SA 3.0 · FrDr — CC BY-SA 4.0 · FrDr — CC BY-SA 4.0 · FrDr — CC BY-SA 4.0
If you care about the city's history or want to see the original Manneken Pis: a good hour on the square itself. For others: the façade from outside suffices, and Magritte and the Comics museum deserve the time more. Ideal in rain given its spot on the square.
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The Brussels City Museum occupies the "King's House" — the imposing neo-Gothic building facing the Town Hall on the Grand-Place (rebuilt 1873–1895 in sixteenth-century style). No king ever lived there; the name comes from its role as the administrative seat of the duke and then the Spanish king. Today it is the museum of the city's history, and its façade alone is among the square's finest. Its first treasure: the original Manneken Pis statue (1619), replaced on the street by a copy in 1965 — you see it here up close. Then models of the city across the centuries explaining how Brussels grew, tapestries and paintings (including "The Wedding Procession" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder), ceramics, and fragments of the square's original façades from before the 1695 bombardment. On the Grand-Place itself — the best historical complement to a visit of the square, one hour suffices. Closed Mondays.
Duquesnoy's original bronze from 1619.
Brussels across the centuries in scale models.
Bruegel the Elder's painting and the square's pre-1695 façades.
Grand-Place, 1000 Brussels