L’Archiduc

Top choice in Brussels


This intimate, split-level art deco bar has been playing jazz since 1937. It’s an unusual, two-tiered circular space that can get incredibly packed but remains convivial. You might need to ring the doorbell to get in. Saturday concerts (5pm) are free; Sunday brings in international talent and admission charges vary.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Brussels attractions

1. Halles St-Géry

0.08 MILES

In 1881 this superb neo-Renaissance brick-and-wrought-iron meat market was built around a curious pyramidal monument-fountain (itself built to replace a…

2. Zinneke

0.08 MILES

In the old Bruxellois dialect, zinneke means ‘a person of mixed origins’, which sums up the city’s inhabitants to this day. Hence Flemish sculptor Tom…

3. Au Lion d'Or

0.12 MILES

The vaulted 1811 brick, neo-Gothic Au Lion d’Or building bridges a branch of the Senne River.

4. Église Ste-Catherine

0.12 MILES

Église Ste-Catherine must be one of the only religious buildings that positively encourages folks to urinate on its walls (there’s a ‘pissoir’ on its…

5. Bruxella 1238

0.13 MILES

Bruxella 1238 is the scanty remains of a Franciscan convent that was bombarded into ruins in 1695. Most of the site is visible by peeping through the…

6. Église Notre-Dame des Riches Claires

0.15 MILES

From a public courtyard off Place St-Géry (go through the black steel gates next to the bistro La Lion St Géry), there's a view of Église Notre Dame des…

7. Bourse

0.15 MILES

The Bourse is Belgium’s 1873 stock-exchange building. It's closed to visitors, but you can enjoy its grandiose neoclassical facade, which is brilliantly…

8. Tour Noire

0.16 MILES

Boxed in on three sides and incongruously dwarfed by the back of a Novotel Hotel, this tower is an ivy-draped remnant of Brussels’ original city wall.