{"id":27564,"date":"2026-07-09T13:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/27564\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T13:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:49:14","slug":"brussels-royal-palace-reopens-in-2026-tickets-dates-and-what-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/27564\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels Royal Palace Reopens in 2026: Tickets, Dates and What to See"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fancy a nosy around a royal palace this summer without the Buckingham Palace<\/a> queues?\u00a0Brussels<\/a> has you covered. <\/p>\n

After four years behind scaffolding, the Belgian capital’s Royal Palace flung open its doors to the public on July 3 \u2013 the first time anyone\u2019s been allowed in since 2022, while the building underwent major renovation works to its fa\u00e7ade and windows. In the meantime, would-be visitors had to make do with a virtual tour. Not quite the same, is it?<\/p>\n

For a bit of background, the palace has been opening to the public every summer since 1965, usually after Belgium’s national holiday on July 21. It’s the working headquarters of the Belgian monarchy, where King Philippe gets on with the day job (the royals actually live over at Laeken, on the edge of the city), which is why visits are strictly a summer-holiday affair. This year King Philippe and Queen Mathilde turned up in person to reopen the place, presumably relieved to finally see the back of the builders.<\/p>\n

A ceiling of beetle wings and a rug from the Shah: What to see at the Royal Palace<\/p>\n

The Throne Room is a Leopold II-era stunner featuring four wall sculptures by Auguste Rodin, carved decades before he made The Thinker and became the most famous sculptor alive. <\/p>\n

The Empire Room comes with a Persian rug gifted by the Shah himself during a 1900 state visit. But the real showstopper is the Mirror Room, where Belgian artist Jan Fabre covered the entire ceiling and a chandelier with nearly 1.5 million iridescent jewel-beetle wing cases back in 2002. It’s called Heaven of Delight and shimmers green-blue-gold depending on where you stand. There’s a handful of new exhibitions to poke around too, covering everything from Belgium’s first queen, Louise d’Orl\u00e9ans, to sound and music.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nPhotograph: ShutterstockThe beetle wing ceiling at the Royal Palace <\/p>\n

How to get tickets<\/p>\n

Two things to know before you go. First, this year’s season is shorter than usual as it runs until August 16 only, where a state visit from the Danish royals in September means the palace needs its state rooms back early. It’s also closed on July 15, 16, 20 and 21. <\/p>\n

Second, after decades of being free, entry now costs \u20ac10 for adults thanks to Belgian budget cuts, although under-13s still go free \u2013 but everyone needs to book a timed slot via\u00a0the palace’s official website<\/a> in advance.<\/p>\n

Getting there is easier than ever too. Brussels is a couple of hours from London on the Eurostar, and the city has just become the starting point of\u00a0Europe’s newest sleeper train route to Milan<\/a>. Just make sure you’ve seen the beetle ceiling before you hop on.<\/p>\n

After more cultural city breaks? These are\u00a0Europe’s best cities for art and culture in 2026, as voted by locals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ICYMI: These are the world\u2019s best hotels in 2026, according to a prestigious award<\/a><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out Travel newsletter<\/a> for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fancy a nosy around a royal palace this summer without the Buckingham Palace queues?\u00a0Brussels has you covered. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[548,551,18,549,550,547],"class_list":["post-27564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-areas-europe","tag-audience-location-audience-worldwide","tag-brussels","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-news-city-life","tag-things-to-do"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116890341647844349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}