Brussels

Belgium exists because of an opera. In 1830, the Dutch king ruled over both the Netherlands and what is now Belgium. The southern population resented him: they were Catholic, he was Protestant, and his government favored the north.

When an opera came to Brussels telling the story of Italian fishermen rebelling against foreign rulers, the audience saw themselves on stage. At the song “Sacred Love of the Fatherland,” people leaped from their seats, poured into the streets, and started an actual revolution. Within weeks, Belgium declared independence.

The city itself is much older. In 979, Duke Charles of Lower Lorraine built a fort on an island in the Senne River, where the waterway became too shallow for boats to continue.

The name Brussels comes from Old Dutch meaning “settlement in the marshes.” Traders traveling between Bruges and Cologne stopped here, and by the 1100s a market formed on the sandy bank that would become the Grand Place.

That famous square nearly vanished in 1695. French troops under Louis XIV bombarded Brussels for three days, destroying a third of the city. The Town Hall’s facade and tower survived, but little else.

The guilds rebuilt everything in just five years. Bakers, brewers, boatmen, and merchants constructed new headquarters around the square, each trying to outdo the others with golden statues and Baroque flourishes.

The result looks like it took centuries to plan, but rose from ashes in a single burst of civic pride. UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site in 1998.

Walk five minutes from the Grand Place to find Manneken Pis, a 55-centimeter bronze statue of a boy doing exactly what his name suggests. Cast in 1619, he owns over 1,000 costumes donated from around the world, displayed in a dedicated museum nearby.

Belgian chocolate shops line nearly every street, selling pralines invented here in 1912. Grab a warm Liège waffle from a street vendor, dense and studded with caramelized sugar.

Order moules-frites at a brasserie: mussels steamed in white wine, served with double-fried Belgian frites and mayonnaise. The fries were invented here, not France, and Belgians will happily remind you.