Brussels Town Hall

This guide to Brussels Town Hall opens with the legend of an architect who supposedly threw himself from the tower after noticing it didn't line up with the hall below, then sets that story against the real, slower explanation: a building raised over half a century by a relay of builders fighting the marsh the whole city sits on. It traces the star embedded in the square, once used to measure distances from Brussels, and points you toward the gilded figure of Saint Michael watching over the square from above. Look for the exact spot where his proportions resolve.