Meeting Point: Entrance of Brussels Central Train Station

Duration: 2 hours

Language: Russian

On April 21 at 11:30, the Russian House in Brussels invites students studying Russian at level B1+ and everyone interested to a walking tour of the city center. This tour will provide historical and cultural insights to enhance language learning.

The first tour will introduce us to the lower part of the city—the very place where Brussels was born and where the majority of its citizens lived for centuries.

Our route will start at Central Station and pass through iconic landmarks. We will take a leisurely walk to the famous Grand Place, the heart of medieval Brussels, surrounded by magnificent guild houses and the Town Hall. Then, we will proceed to the former island of Saint Gaugericus, now a historic part of the city, which was once a major religious and trade settlement.

A special focus of the tour will be the cultural and historical ties between Belgium and Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Our guide through this historical journey will be the experienced Vladimir Ronin—a historian, Slavist, and philologist who has taught at the Antwerp branch of KU Leuven University for over 30 years. He is also the author of guidebooks on Antwerp and Brussels.

This walk is a wonderful opportunity to see Brussels from a new perspective, discover its secrets, and feel the breath of history in the narrow cobbled streets of the old town.

The next tour, “Walking Tour of Brussels with Historian Vladimir Ronin: The Upper Town,” will take place on May 29.