All our guided tours
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Fake Brussels: City Centre
All is not what it seems in Brussels historic heart. It might look old but sometimes it is not.
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Brussels 1900 - Art Nouveau
The tour helps participants to understand the place of Art Nouveau in Brussels, its origins, its technical and stylistic characteristics, and the personalities of its most wellknown architects.
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Building a Capital
After the Belgian Revolution of 1830 Brussels became the capital of a new state.
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The most beautiful Neo-Classical groups of buildings of the historic centre
In the eighteenth century, the urban fabric of Brussels inherited from the Middle Ages was profoundly changed by the construction of three major Neo-Classical groups of buildings
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The avenue Franklin Roosevelt District, a veritable catalogue of Art Deco architecture
The Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, laid out on the site of the 1910 Universal Exhibition, offers a wide panorama of the architectural trends of the inter-war period, in which the Art Deco style occupies a prime position.
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Art Deco and Modernism in Uccle : The Longchamp district
This guided tour illustrates the different architectural styles of the period and the decorative delights to be found on some facades.
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Brussels : Capital of Art Nouveau
The Art Nouveau style of architecture was first seen in the district around the Avenue Louise in Brussels. From Victor Horta’s Tassel House, a veritable manifesto for the style, to the more geometric designs of Paul Hankar, this visit explores the context of the style’s creation in Brussels.
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Art Nouveau in Saint-Gilles
Some of the most significant Art Nouveau buildings in the city are located in Saint-Gilles.
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Best of Brussels
This walking tour visits the major historical sites of the centre of Brussels: the Grand’ Place and its surroundings, the Sablon or the royal district.
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A European district in Brussels
This tour shows participants the main buildings occupied by the European institutions in Brussels: the European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament and the Economic & Social Committee.
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Best of Brussels (coach)
This tour allows participants to discover the remarkable historic monuments in Brussels: the Grand'Place and its surroundings (walking tour), the Sablon, the royal district, the Law Courts buildings...
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The Marolles
This tour shows some of the district’s hidden gems and tries to explain the issues confronting today’s residents.
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The Ixelles Ponds
The Ixelles Ponds district offers a remarkable panorama of some of the best twentieth-century buildings in Brussels, from Art Nouveau via Art Deco to Modernism.
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Art Nouveau in Schaerbeek
Victor Horta, Gustave Strauven, François Hemelsoet and Henri Jacobs were just four of the architects who reinvented family houses, apartment buildings and educational buildings in the Art Nouveau style.
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The squares district
The district became a veritable laboratory of late nineteenth-century architecture, with facades in a wide variety of styles, from unfettered Eclecticism to Art Nouveau, then at its zenith. This tour could include the visit of the Victor Horta’s van Eetvelde Mansion.
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A street in Brussels
Discover the architectural styles of Brussels in one street: Art Nouveau, Neo-Classical, Beaux-Arts, Neo-Gothic… Learn about the fabric of the city and what makes a typical house in Brussels.
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Art Nouveau in the Marolles
Discover the most beautiful Art Nouveau buildings in the Marolles!
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Brussels 1930 - Art Deco and Modernism
The tour includes visits to at least two interiors, subject to availability, chosen from Forest Town Hall, Koekelberg Basilica Church, the RVS Insurance building (now SD Worx) and the Van Buuren museum, an Art Deco masterpiece.
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From Art Nouveau to Art Deco
This three-hour coach tour explores two of the major styles in the history of architecture in Brussels
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Art Deco and Modernism in Uccle | Part 1
On the outskirts of the city, the former village of Uccle became, in the inter-war years, a particularly desirable residential area for the inhabitants of Brussels...
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Totally Horta
This three-hour coach tour explores the remaining buildings of Victor Horta, the leading Belgian Art Nouveau architect
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Solvay Mansion
This Art Nouveau masterpiece was designed in 1895 and today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Almost miraculously, most of its interior decoration has been preserved.
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Max Hallet Mansion
In 1902, Max Hallet, a leading Belgian politician and lawyer, commissioned Victor Horta to design a house suitable for entertaining guests on the prestigious Avenue Louise. A spectacular stairwell forms the heart of this urban palace
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Architecture at the service of the city
This guided walk will take us through one of the less-well-known districts of Brussels where some beautiful architectural ensembles from different periods have been preserved, which allow us to examine the development of the city from a different point of view and which highlight the major trends in Brussels architecture, from the Middle Ages to the present.
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The Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges district
The “Our Lady of the Snows” district that we see today was created in the 1870s. Covering the strip of land between the Congress Column and the inner ring road, its high-quality public spaces and ornate facades create a unique urban environment
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The Lepoutre district
The Avenue Louis Lepoutre in Ixelles is the backbone of the Berkendael district. Its townhouses and apartment buildings, commissioned by the city’s elite in the period just before the First World War are good examples of the typical Belgian urban lifestyle in that era, inspired by Paris, among other cities
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Alternative Brussels
This three-hour coach tour helps participants understand the issues around these changes from the residents’ point of view and offers some unexpected panoramic views of the city
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1000 years of commerce in Brussels
This tour shows both the grand and the more modest remains of the city’s commercial past and stresses the importance of commerce in its development.
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The Grand’place and its surroundings
As well as the unmissable UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Grand’ Place, this tour also includes some lesser-known parts of the historic centre
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The Art Nouveau facade, a total work of art
This tour will introduce you to the wide range of techniques and materials used in the Art Nouveau style, including carved stone, wrought iron, cast iron, timber, ceramics, sgraffiti and stained glass. You will also discover some lesser-known “hidden gems”.
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Turn-of-the-century Brussels: from one town hall to another
The “Turn-of-the-century Brussels” guided tours offer opportunities to explore the history of urban development and architectural design in this defining period for the Brussels region.
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Turn-of-the-century Brussels: from Ixelles to Schaerbeek
The “Turn-of-the-century Brussels” guided tours offer opportunities to explore the history of urban development and architectural design in this defining period for the Brussels region.
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Art Nouveau and Art Deco in Schaerbeek
In the early years of the twentieth century, the village of Schaerbeek was transformed by the construction of the prestigious Avenue Louis Bertrand.
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The central boulevards: a catalogue of Eclecticism
This guided walking tour explores the most beautiful, prize-winning facades along the central boulevards, where the Eclectic style occupies an important place.
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Gems of Eclectic architecture
This guided tour offers a beautiful glimpse of eclectic architecture and allows participants to see the high quality of some typical, less-well-known Brussels decorative features.
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Exploring Art Deco architecture in northern Brussels
This guided tour through the districts of Jette and Ganshoren explores the different trends within the Art Deco movement and shows every possible type of façade decoration you could imagine with interplays of colours, materials and shapes.
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Around Our Lady of Laeken church
Further from the church are some beautiful groups of buildings, such as the former Grenadiers’ barracks, now a European school, and the Florists’ Gardens, which are well worth a visit.
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The district around Place de l’Altitude Cent
A walking tour through a district with a rich history and many less-well-known buildings.
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The Solbosch district
A very rich perimeter developed around an exceptional landscaped avenue, where prestigious houses is various styles were built.
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From Boulevard du Jubilé to the canal
The development of a trans-shipment goods station and new port infrastructures on the Tour and Taxis site in the early twentieth century had a huge effect on this district.
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At the heart of Anderlecht
The collegiate church of St Peter and St Guidon, together with the Erasmus house and its magnificent garden, plus the smallest béguinage in Belgium plunge us into the heart of a thousand years of history.
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The Flagey district
This guided walking tour takes you through a district of the city unlike any other.
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Around Square Riga in Schaerbeek
L’avenue Huart Hamoir à Schaerbeek est exceptionnelle autant par ses dimensions que par la qualité de son aménagement.
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In the heights of Saint-Gilles
The urban development designed at the end of the nineteenth century between Chaussée de Waterloo, Chaussée d’Alsemberg and Avenue Ducpétiaux is extraordinarily rich in terms of architecture and planning
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At the heart of Forest
The history of Forest began around St Denis’s church, but it was the establishment of an abbey here that began the development of the lower part of Forest with the growing of crops and the raising of animals on farms.
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Following the traces of the railway in the city: from Saint-Josse to Schaerbeek
ARAU offers you an opportunity to follow the traces of this railway line through several groups of remarkable heritage buildings
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Behind the walls: the prison
ARAU invites you on a journey through the history of the construction of these cellular prisons (of which some parts will soon become listed buildings) that accompanied the development of districts with particularly rich architecture and urban perspectives.
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Molenbeek: place of welcome
This guided tour shows where their migrant journeys ended and shows the historical importance of places of exchange and socialisation in one of the most iconic districts of the Moroccan presence in Brussels
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New life for offices: from the Belgacom building to the CGER
Proposals for converting large office blocks are becoming more common and raise many questions about what to do with these buildings inherited from the period between 1960 and 1980
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Proposed housing along the canal: from the demolition of large blocks to new towers
Unappreciated and derelict for many years, the area along the canal has recently become the centre of attention.
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Free access to heritage buildings: from Brussels-Congress station to the Saint-Josse baths
Maintaining or converting buildings that are open to the public presents very specific challenges.
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The Stalingrad-Lemonnier district: everything must go?
ARAU thus offers a reminder of the district’s rich history and is meeting places, so as to better understand the battle being fought today by its residents.
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How to save industrial heritage
Industry had long been the principal economic activity of Brussels before its decline from the 1970s onwards in favour of office-based services.
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Transformation of the city centre: tourists before residents?
Much ink has been spilled since the project to pedestrianise the central boulevards was launched in 2014, mostly on the subject of mobility.
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“Cubism street” in Koekelberg
This guided tour is an opportunity to explore some of the remains of the district’s industrial past.
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Beyond the Petit Sablon
Lots of history on a pocket-handkerchief-sized area.
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An artists’ village in Ixelles
This guided walking tour explores Rue Vautier and Rue Wiertz which are lined with unusual and picturesque heritage buildings
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Exploring Ixelles’ most beautiful apartment buildings
ARAU invites you to discover Ixelles’ most beautiful apartment buildings!
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Around Rue Marconi in Forest
This guided tour will explore some remarkable heritage social housing, plus a school and some private homes in Forest.
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Crossing the valley: a short history of the bridges on Avenue de la Couronne
Explore behind the scenes in the “high” and “low” parts of Ixelles that were constructed against the odds.
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Porte de Louvain: hidden treasure
Around Porte de Louvain, today known as Place Madou, can be seen some remains of a long-lost Saint-Josse.
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The district around the veterinary college in Anderlecht
This guided tour explores a district with a rich industrial past which has preserved some extraordinary heritage buildings.
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La Cambre Abbey
A short overview of this site that is exceptional in every way.
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Secrets of Square Ambiorix
What have the Roman general Julius Caesar, the biologist Louis Pasteur, the Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Belgian Workers’ Party have in common?
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Avenue Louis Bertrand: from St Servais’ church to Brusilia
Avenue Louis Bertrand is today a listed historical site, and it has always been considered one of the most beautiful avenues in Brussels.
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Les Marolles: The voice of modest housing
While the urban planning struggle in the Marolles district was the foundation of all the similar struggles that followed in Brussels, it was also closely linked to the history of ARAU and to an iconic personality, the parish priest Jacques Van der Biest, a leader of this struggle and one of the founders of ARAU.
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Anderlecht-in-the-Gardens
To help participants appreciate all the details of these three architectural ensembles, this guided tour will be by bicycle and we will travel along sections of the “Brussels green promenade” between them.
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Workers’ housing and garden suburbs in Molenbeek
This guided tour offers an overview of the types and styles of social housing in Brussels, from the first estates of workers’ housing to Modernist ensembles, passing via garden suburbs, of course.
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Around the Cité Terdelt: the story of the Foyer Schaerbeekois
The Cité Terdelt was the first garden suburb in Schaerbeek. Completed in 1926, it includes both single-family houses in the Normandy and Art Deco styles as well as small apartment buildings set on the junctions of main roads.
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The village side of Etterbeek
A former agricultural district whose prosperity owed much to its watercourses, Etterbeek has been able to retain, around Place Jourdan and along Chaussée Saint-Pierre, a village atmosphere.
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Square Frère-Orban
Located where political and financial power meet, Square Frère-Orban is an excellent illustration of the development of new suburbs outside the city walls of Brussels in the nineteenth century.
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Square Armand Steurs: Art Deco masterpiece
Square Armand Steurs is home to a beautiful array of monuments, sculptures and fountains that make references, among others, to the former mayor of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode after which it is named, and to his role in the supply of drinking water to Brussels.
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Guided tour for your group
Would you like to follow a guided tour of Brussels with your family, friends, or as part of a team building or a school outing? ARAU can arrange guided tours for groups in addition to its public programme throughout the year. You can tailor these tours to your specific requirements regarding date, time, duration and language (French, English, Dutch, German, Spanish or Italian). We are currently experiencing a problem with our order form, for more details about our guided tours, contact us by mail : info@arau.org
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Art nouveau and Art Deco in Forest
Forest Park is surrounded by a very rich diversity of heritage buildings, including a few very beautiful Art Nouveau facades that would justify a visit in themselves.
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Hotel van Eetvelde
Extended several times, the Hotel Van Eetvelde is one of the finest surviving examples of the architect's work, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Hannon house
In 1902, Edouard Hannon, an engineer with the Solvay firm, and his wife Marie Desbard commissioned their friend Jules Brunfaut to build a corner house on Avenue Brugmann.
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The Hannon Mansion and its surrouding
This tour combines a tour of the interior of the Hannon Mansion with a walking tour in the surrounding area. A must for Art Nouveau enthusiasts!
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The Victor Horta’s van Eetvelde Mansion and the squares district
This tour combines a tour of the interior of the Victor Horta’s van Eetvelde Mansion with a walking tour in the splendid Squares district. To understand the history of this architectural gem, while placing it in the context of the development of the surrounding district.