Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon

The Sablon (French) or Zavel (Dutch) is a neighbourhood and hill in the historic upper town of Brussels, Belgium. At its heart are twin squares: the larger Grand Sablon or Grote Zavel ("Large Sablon") square in the north-west and the smaller Petit Sablon or Kleine Zavel ("Small Sablon") square and garden in the south-east, divided by the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon.

Starting its activities in 1813, the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (French: Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, Dutch: Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel) received its official name in 1832. Providing performing music and drama courses, the institution became renowned partly because of the international reputation of its successive directors such as François-Joseph Fétis, François-Auguste Gevaert, Edgar Tinel, Joseph Jongen or Marcel Poot, but more because it has been attended by many of the top musicians, actors and artists in Belgium such as Arthur Grumiaux, José Van Dam, Sigiswald Kuijken, Josse De Pauw, Luk van Mello and Luk De Konink. Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, also studied at the Brussels Conservatory. In 1967, the institution split into two separate entities: the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, which teaches in Dutch, and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, which continued teaching in French. The former entity became a School of Arts of Erasmus University College alongside film school RITCS, and associated with Vrije Universiteit Brussel it also offers Ph.D. degrees in the Arts through Art Platform Brussels. Since 2009, the latter entity has been associated with the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels La Cambre and the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle (INSAS), forming ARTes, an organisation that embraces the three aforementioned art schools of the French Community of Belgium in Brussels.

The Great Synagogue of Europe, formerly known as the Great Synagogue of Brussels (French: Grande synagogue de Bruxelles; Dutch: Grote Synagoge van Brussel), is the main synagogue in Brussels, Belgium which was dedicated as a focal point for European Jews in 2008. The building was designed in 1875 in a Romanesque-Byzantine style by the architect Désiré De Keyser and constructed in 1878. It is located at 32 Rue de la Régence in Brussels. The synagogue survived the Holocaust in which 25,000 Belgian Jews died. Its chief rabbi is Albert Guigui and there are approximately 15,000 persons of Jewish faith in the city (as of 2008).On Rosh Hashanah, 18 September 1982, the synagogue was attacked by a man with a submachine gun, seriously wounding four people. The attack has been attributed to the Abu Nidal Organization.It was dedicated as the "Great Synagogue of Europe" on 4 June 2008 by President José Manuel Barroso and two of Europe's leading rabbis who signed a document of dedication. The ceremony also involved singing by the European Choir and the reading of a "Prayer for Europe." The prayer wished for EU leaders to act justly in creating a "spiritual union" and to ask for happiness for European citizens.The act was of a more political nature, as in the 19th century, responding to the Age of Enlightenment, Great Synagogues were built in many capitals of Europe to show that Jews were full and free citizens. This is something the Jewish community now wished to show at a European level. It is hoped that the building will become a focus for Judaism in Europe, as St. Peter's Basilica is for Roman Catholics.

The National Archives of Belgium (French: Archives générales du Royaume, Dutch: Algemeen Rijksarchief, literally the "General Archives of the Kingdom") is the main depository of the Belgian State Archives. It is located on rue de Ruysbroeck/Ruysbroeckstraat, next to the Mont des Arts, in central Brussels. This archive repository holds over 70 kilometres (43 mi) of archives.

The Oldmasters Museum (French: Musée Oldmasters, Dutch: Oldmasters Museum) is a museum in Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to European painters from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It is one of the constituent museums of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The museum was founded in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It was originally named the Musée royal d'art ancien ("Royal Museum of Ancient Art").

The Egmont Palace (French: Palais d'Egmont, Dutch: Egmontpaleis), also sometimes known as the Arenberg Palace (French: Palais d'Arenberg, Dutch: Arenbergpaleis), is a neoclassical palace in Brussels, Belgium. It was originally built between 1548 and 1560 for Countess Françoise of Luxembourg and Lamoral, Count of Egmont, though its appearance was heavily modified in the 18th century. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1892, after which it was once again reconstructed. Today, it houses the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The palace is situated in the Sablon/Zavel district (south-eastern part of Brussels' city centre), between the Rue aux Laines/Wolstraat and the Square du Petit Sablon/Kleine Zavelsquare. This site is served by Porte de Namur/Naamsepoort metro station (on lines 2 and 6 of the Brussels Metro), as well as the tram stop Petit Sablon/Kleine Zavel (on lines 92 and 93).

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (French: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Dutch: Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the Magritte Museum, the Fin-de-Siècle Museum, the Modern Museum, the Antoine Wiertz Museum and the Constantin Meunier Museum. The Royal Museums contains over 20,000 drawings, sculptures, and paintings, covering a period extending from the early 15th century to the present, such as those of Flemish old masters like Bruegel, Rogier van der Weyden, Robert Campin, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, and Peter Paul Rubens, making it the most popular art institution and most visited museum complex in Belgium. The Magritte Museum houses the world's largest collection of the works of the surrealist René Magritte.

The Fin-de-Siècle Museum (French: Musée Fin-de-Siècle, "Museum of the Turn of the Century") is a museum in Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to the full spectrum of the arts of the period between 1884, when the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts ("Free Society of Fine Arts") was founded Brussels, and 1914, the year of the outbreak of World War I. It is one of the constituent museums of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The museum opened on 6 December 2013.

On the afternoon of 24 May 2014, a gunman opened fire at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, killing four people. Three of them, an Israeli couple on holiday and a French woman, died at the scene. The fourth victim, a Belgian employee of the museum, was taken to the hospital but died of his injuries on 6 June. A little less than a week later, on 30 May 2014, a suspect was arrested in the French city of Marseille in connection with the shooting. The suspect was Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old French national of Algerian origin. A second suspect, Nacer Bendrer, was identified and arrested later. Prior to the shooting, Nemmouche had already spent time in French prisons, where he became involved in radical Islam. After his imprisonment, he also spent more than a year in Syria. It is also in prison where he met Bendrer, who was suspected of having supplied Nemmouche with the weapons used in the attack. Investigators identified a third suspect as well, but the charges against the third suspect were later dismissed due to the evidence against him being considered too weak. Nemmouche and Bendrer were formally indicted in April 2018, and tried before the court of assizes of Brussels in early 2019. After two months of trial hearings, a verdict was rendered: Nemmouche was found guilty of having committed the attack, whilst Bendrer was found guilty of being the co-author of the attack by having supplied Nemmouche with the weapons used in the attack. The theory that Nemmouche was framed by foreign intelligence officials, put forward by Nemmouche's defence, was rejected. Subsequently, Nemmouche was sentenced to life imprisonment whilst Bendrer was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. Both were later also sentenced to pay close to one million euro in damages to the victims' next of kin.

The Jewish Museum of Belgium (French: Musée juif de Belgique, Dutch: Joods Museum van België) is a museum in Brussels, Belgium, focusing on the history of the Jews in Belgium.

The Magritte Museum (French: Musée Magritte, Dutch: Magritte Museum) is an art museum in central Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to the work of the Belgian surrealist artist, René Magritte. It is one of the constituent museums of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. It is served by Brussels Central Station, as well as by the metro stations Parc/Park (on lines 1 and 5) and Trône/Troon (on lines 2 and 6).

The Palace of Charles of Lorraine (French: Palais de Charles de Lorraine, Dutch: Paleis van Karel van Lotharingen) is a neoclassical palace in the Royal Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. Its construction started in 1757 to serve as the residence of the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, replacing the Palace of Orange-Nassau. It currently houses a museum, part of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR). Located on what is now the Place du Musée/Museumplein, the palace lies atop the Coudenberg hill, not far from the Place Royale/Koningsplein and the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg, as well as nearby institutions such as the Royal Palace of Brussels and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. This area is served by Brussels Central Station, as well as by the metro stations Parc/Park (on lines 1 and 5) and Trône/Troon (on lines 2 and 6).