Brussels City Museum

This guide to the Brussels City Museum begins with the building's nickname, the King's House, though no king ever lived there — a title that stuck in 1516. It traces the original Broodhuis bread market through French cannon fire in 1695 and its full rebuild in the 1800s, when architect Victor Jamaer gave it soaring gothic windows designed to look centuries older than they are. The guide climbs from that history up through the building floor by floor. Look closely at the carved saints and gargoyles on your way up.