The Cultured Traveller - Fourth Anniversary Edition, September-November 2018 Issue 23

boltholes like the legendary jazz club L’Archiduc, to neoclassical confections such as the Royal Palace and the gothic masterpiece that is the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall), Brussels is a vision of architectural wonders. Many of them are huddled shoulder to shoulder at La Grande-Place, a cobbled market square surrounded by some of the most spectacular buildings in Europe: elaborate guildhalls dripping in gold, resplendent ducal palaces and the aforementioned Town Hall with its soaring spire, all of which were deservedly inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.

If these buildings represent the grand ambitions of the city’s wealthiest inhabitants and architects, then art takes on a less ostentatious but equally important role in Bruxelloise life. René Magritte is the best-known of the city’s surrealist artists, with two museums dedicated to his life and work, but it is Brussels’ comic book artists that are perhaps the most well-known around the world, including the two most famous: Georges Prosper Remi (Hergé) who created The Adventures of Tin Tin in 1929, and Pierre Culliford (Peyo) who gave birth to The Smurfs in 1958 – a year that holds special significance in Brussels.

Sep-Nov 2018 The Cultured Traveller 131