Brussels Cathedral

Brussels Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

The cathedral stands on a slope between the lower and upper towns, five minutes from the central station, and entry to the nave is free. Two paid extras are worth considering: the archaeological crypt under the west end, which shows the foundations of the Romanesque church that stood here before, and the treasury. Both are inexpensive and neither takes long. Guided walks of central Brussels pass the front on the way between the grand square and the royal quarter, and comic-strip and art nouveau tours ignore it entirely, which is a reasonable choice if that is your interest.

Organ recitals are held regularly and the instrument, suspended above the nave rather than set in a west gallery, is worth hearing. State occasions, royal weddings and funerals are held here, and the church closes completely for them; those dates are national news and easy to check. Free lunchtime recitals are announced on a board inside the north door rather than online.

Visiting Brussels Cathedral: what to see

Building began in the eleventh century as a Romanesque collegiate church and continued in Gothic from 1226, with the twin west towers, about sixty-four metres high, finished in the fifteenth century. The style is Brabantine Gothic, the regional manner shared with the great churches of Leuven and Mechelen, and this is among its clearest examples. The west front is severe and symmetrical; the interior is tall, pale and rather bare, having lost its medieval furnishings in the religious wars.

What survives is very good: sixteenth-century stained glass designed by Bernard van Orley in the transepts and the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, a baroque pulpit carved in the 1690s with Adam and Eve driven out of Eden under a canopy of foliage, and twelve apostle statues against the nave columns. The crypt below preserves the eleventh-century apse and floor. The church became a cathedral only in 1962, sharing the title with Mechelen. A Swedish royal chapel on the north side was built in the 1530s and keeps its original vault bosses.

Brussels Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Weekday mornings are quiet and the glass is at its best when the sun is high. Sunday is for services rather than sightseeing, and the sung mass is worth attending on its own terms. Brussels weather is unreliable year-round, which is an argument for keeping the cathedral for a grey hour and the parks for a clear one. Christmas brings a market through the lower town and a light show on the grand square. The surrounding streets are busy with commuters and rather characterless;

the interesting parts of the city lie downhill towards the square and uphill towards the museums, and the cathedral sits awkwardly between them, which is why so many visitors only see it from a tram window. Half an hour inside is enough for most people, an hour with the crypt and treasury. The station next door makes it an easy first stop on arrival. The building is one of the few places in the centre where you can sit down for nothing, which in Brussels is worth knowing.