Brussels Street Art & Comic Strip Walking Tours (+ Printable Maps)

Many of the world’s most famous comics originated in Belgium. Maybe some of these will ring a bell: ‘The Adventures of Tintin’, ‘The Smurfs’ and ‘The Adventures of Astérix’. Yep, all of these were created by Belgian artists and writers!

Belgium’s capital city, Brussels, celebrates this infamy by showcasing over 50 giant comic strip murals along Brussels’ Comic Book Route / Comic Strip Route. And this is just one of the many top reasons to visit Brussels!

So, fancy heading out on a self-guided walking tour of Brussels? We’ve created two different routes you can follow (depending on how much you want to see).

During the shorter walk, you’ll discover at least 10 comic strip murals and street art pieces. While the longer walk features even more murals and interesting landmarks.

We’ve even created handy maps and a PDF you can access online or print out before your trip.

FYI: You can skip ahead to the different sections of this blog post via the links below:

• Brussels Street Art Walking Tour Maps & 2024 Update
• Short 1.25 Mile Walking Tour
• Longer 5 Mile Walking Tour
• Other Street Art We Found in Brussels
• How We Designed Our Self-Guided Walking Tours

Brussels Street Art Walking Tour Maps & 2024 Update

As I mentioned, we’ve created two different street art walking tours for Brussels. The first one (our original walking tour) lasts for approximately 1 hour and covers 1.25 miles. Our newly upgraded version is around 5 miles long and takes 3-4 hours to complete (with rest stops).

We used to recommend starting our original walking tour from the Bruxelles-Midi train station – where the Eurostar terminal is. This made it easy if you wanted to start your self-guided walking tour of Brussels as soon as your city break started.

Why We’ve Updated Our Walking Tours

We’ve recently come back from another trip to Belgium and we found the area surrounding the Bruxelles-Midi train station has substantially gone downhill since our last visit. I actually didn’t feel safe there at all, so we’ve decided to completely remove this area from our walking tours.

The first walk now starts from the Bruxelles-Central train station and ends in Anneessens where the famous Astérix & Obélix comic strip mural can be found. Both tours now also focus on the centre of Brussels (surrounding Grand-Place), so they should be more enjoyable for you.

For reference, here’s how the original walking tour used to look:

And here’s how our newly upgraded walking tours look now:

Read on to find out more about these walking tours or you can grab both versions right now via our handy maps and printable PDF linked below.

We’ve also highlighted various landmarks and points of interest in Brussels that you’ll see along the way, so you know what else to look out for during your walk.

Plus, if you’re interested in designing your own Brussels street art walking tour, we’ve also explained how we created ours at the end of this blog post.

Short Brussels Street Art Walking Tour: 1.25 Miles – 1 Hour

If you only have an hour or two to look for Brussels’ Comic Strip murals, this is the tour for you! We’ve scouted out the very best murals for you and we’ve designed it to start from the Bruxelles-Central train station. Here’s the map for this tour. Listed below is what you can look forward to seeing during it.

1. Smurfs

The Smurfs is probably one of Belgium’s most famous comic series. It follows the village of some small blue people as they build their village, encounter magic from the native wizard and fall in love.

It was first first penned in 1958. Since then, the comics have been translated into 25 languages and have been adapted for both film and television.

The comic strip mural in Brussels is on the ceiling of the Putterie passageway just across from the Bruxelles-Central train station. It’s huge, covering 206m2 and took over 60 litres of paint to create!

We struggled to find it as we didn’t expect it to be on the ceiling. Hopefully, you won’t have the same issue now that you’ve read our blog.

If you look for the Putterie passage, walk inside it and look up, you’ll instantly be hit with a dazzling array of bright blue, yellow, white and red – and the most charming Smurfs village scene.

We easily spent about 15 minutes standing inside this passage, admiring it from every possible angle.

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Putterie – 1000 Bruxelles

Top Tip: The stunning Galeries Royales Saint Hubert shopping arcade isn’t far from the Smurfs mural… well worth a look! You’ll also find a fun Smurfs statue outside Galerie Horta, which might also be worth the slight detour.

2. Manneken Peace

Although not based on a comic strip mural, on the side of the Manneken Pis GardeRobe Museum, is a large street art mural of a modern-day Manneken Pis. It’s wittingly labelled as Manneken Peace.

It’s fun and well worth seeing if you love everything about the iconic (and weird) symbol of Brussels!

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Rue de Chȇne 19 – 1000 Bruxelles

3. Olivier Rameau

Olivier Rameau is a comic strip that dates back as far as 1931. It tells the story of a young legal clerk called Olivier Rameau and the beautiful Colombe Tiredaile as they battle to save the fictional kingdom of Rêverose from various threats.

This mural was one of the ones I was most desperate to see after seeing how colourful it looked on another blog. It did not disappoint!

It’s based on the 1960s versions of the comics and depicts the two main title characters standing on a field of flowers, trying to clasp hands as fireworks set off all around them.

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Rue de Chȇne 9 – 1000 Bruxelles

4. Tintin

The Adventures of Tintin is another of Belgium’s most famous comic strips. Dating back to 1929, the comics have since been published in more than 70 languages and adapted for radio, film and TV.

The comic follows the heroic adventures of Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and his loyal dog, Snowy, as they try to solve crimes and mysteries in the 1920s.

The accompanying mural is based on a strip found in its most famous comic book called ‘The Calculus Affair’, which was published in 1956.

The mural is along one of Brussels’ most touristy roads where you’re never too far from shops selling Belgian waffles, chocolates and souvenirs, as well as horse-drawn carriages rambling past.

It covers the full length of a wall on the side of a shop and is still super bright in appearance.

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Rue de l’Étuve 37 – 1000 Bruxelles

Top Tip: Look out for the iconic Manneken Pis statue just around the corner from the Tintin mural!

5. LGBT

The LGBT mural in Brussels is based on a comic strip like all the others. But a much more recent one compared with many of the other murals found on this walk.

The mural was painted as part of the Pride Festival, by Ralf König & Fotini Tikkou in collaboration with Rainbow House, the City of Brussels and Ancienne Belgique.

It depicts several stereotypes and homophobic reactions associated with the LGBT community.

Although it’s a bright and fun piece, it needs a second look to see the sad deeper meaning. When we visited, we noticed that additional graffiti had been added to it. (We assume this isn’t part of the original piece!)

Around the corner from this mural, you’ll also find another LGBT series, which triggers even deeper meanings and feelings.

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Rue de la Chaufferette 25 – 1000 Bruxelles

Top Tip: Look out for Choco-Story, Brussels’ informative cocoa museum and home of chocolate-making demonstrations just up the road from the LGBT mural!

6. Broussaille

Broussaille is a Belgian comic, which was created as a spin-off series from the artist’s original stories.

The comic follows the title character’s discoveries and learnings about nature, wildlife and animals.

The accompanying mural was the first Brussels comic strip mural to be painted (in 1991) by the original comic strip artist himself, Frank Pé.

It depicts a young couple arm in arm, walking through the streets of Brussels.

Despite it being located in Brussels’ main gay nightlife hub (as suggested by the rainbow-coloured zebra crossings found near here), the mural is actually of a man and a woman. Although it’s very difficult to see this at first glance!

It’s a huge mural covering the full length of a wall on the side of a café and it’s handily just across the road from the next mural on this mini walking tour.

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Rue du Marché au Charbon 37 – 1000 Bruxelles

7. Victor Sackville

Victor Sackville was a French-Belgian cartoon series that witnessed the missions of an English spy of George V around the world, but especially in Brussels and other European cities.

The cartoon began in 1985 in collaboration with the newspaper, ‘Pourquoi pas?’. It’s since been published in the ‘Journal of Tintin’ since 1988 and in ‘Hello Bédé’ since 1989.

The comic strip mural of this classy agent and an unknown woman fills the entire length of a wall beside shops and cafés. Given its size, it’s hard to miss!

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Rue du Marché au Charbon 60 – 1000 Bruxelles

8. Astérix & Obélix

Astérix or The Adventures of Astérix is a series of French comics, which first appeared in the Franco-Belgian magazine ‘Pilote’ in 1959.

Possibly one of Belgium’s most famous comic strips, it’s been translated into 111 languages around the world. We even read them as children ourselves!

The series follows the adventures of a village of Gauls people as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BC.

This is also depicted in the accompanying street art mural, which sees a heap of characters from the series charging at the Romans.

The mural itself is on a wall facing a basketball court. However, the gates to it aren’t always open.

They were locked when we visited on a Friday in November so we had to push our cameras through the railings to take a photo of the whole thing.

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Rue de la Buanderie 25 – 1000 Bruxelles

Long Brussels Street Art Walking Tour – 5 Miles – 4 Hours

If you want to see lots more Comic Strip murals in Brussels, you might enjoy our newly upgraded walking tour!

This is a circular route starting and ending at the Bruxelles-Central train station. It lasts for around 3-4 hours (with rest stops).

You’ll also see lots of Brussels’ best bits on the way. Check out our newest walking tour by filling in the quick form below:

Other Street Art We Found in Brussels

Throughout our Brussels city break, we kept stumbling across other street art pieces as well.

We saw an old green chair being carried by a workman and pigeons around the corner from Astérix & Obélix, some colourful shop artwork near the LGBT mural, several musicians and a forest display near the Olivier Rameau mural and even Mickey Mouse opposite Marché aux Poissons.

It goes to show how much other interesting street art you’ll find in Brussels alongside the more famous comic strip murals. So… keep your eyes peeled throughout your visit to this fun city!

Le Chat

Le Chat was a daily comic strip created by Philippe Geluck. It was published in the newspaper ‘Le Soir’ from 1983 to 2013.

It was an exceedingly popular comic series and the cat eventually became known as the mascot of its publishing newspaper.

The accompanying comic strip mural was created in 1993 and depicts the title character seemingly building himself out of bricks.

Visit Brussels claims this is a “typical insult of the Marolles population since Poelaert built the imposing Palais de Justice, which overlooks this working-class district of Brussels.”

The mural is high up on the side of a building. You’ll likely see it as soon as you walk through the pedestrian passageway beneath the R20 road.

As per our 2024 update at the start of this blog post, we sadly no longer recommend walking around this area because we didn’t feel safe during our most recent visit.

Brussels Street Art Address Book:
Boulevard du Midi 87 – 1000 Bruxelles

How We Designed Our Self-Guided Walking Tours

If you’re interested in creating your own Brussels comic strip walking tour, then here’s how we created ours.

Step 1: Make a list of must-see murals

First, we made a note of the addresses of all the comic strip murals we simply HAD to see during our trip to Brussels.

For both of us, these were Astérix & Obélix, Tintin and the Smurfs because we’d read and heard about these comics as young children. I was also desperate to see the Olivier Rameau mural.

We used this website to get the addresses we needed.

Step 2: Use a map!

Then, using a good old-fashioned map that came with our Brussels guidebook, we set about plotting these murals on the map. I suppose you can just use Google Maps now, though, eh?

This helped us establish how far apart they were and how close they were to landmarks we already knew about.

Step 3: Find out which mural to see first

Once we had our map circled, we needed to find out which mural was closest to our hotel. In our case, it was just around the corner from the Bruxelles-Midi train station. This meant Astérix & Obélix was the first main mural we wanted to see.

Step 4: Find out which murals to see next

From there, we established which order the next few murals should come in, leading us to see Tintin, Olivier Rameau and the Smurfs next.

Step 5: Find more murals en route

Given that we knew there were well over 50 comic strip murals dotted around Brussels, we checked whether there were any other murals near the ones we knew we wanted to see.

A quick check of addresses against this trusty website showed us that some murals, such as Tintin, were just minutes apart from lots of other interesting street art pieces.

Step 6: Fill in the gaps on your map

So, we filled the gaps between each of the main murals with others we would try to find along the way, leaving us with about 6 or 7 murals to see in total.

Step 7: Look for more street art as you wander

During the walk itself, we made sure to look around corners and keep our eyes peeled on every building we passed. By doing this, we discovered a handful of other murals and street art we loved!

Step 8: Share your knowledge with others

Then, we came back home and wrote this blog post to give you some inspiration ahead of your own walking tour. We hope it’s proved useful!

Read More About Brussels, Belgium

We’ve visited Belgium many times over the years, so we have lots of blogs for you to read. You can find them all here. Alternatively, you might like to start with one of these:

• 17 Reasons Why Brussels Is Worth Visiting
• 2 Days in Brussels: The Perfect Weekend Itinerary
• Brussels In A Day: Action-Packed One Day In Brussels Itinerary
• Hidden Gems in Brussels: 10 Oft-Forgotten Brussels Secrets
• The Peeing Statues in Brussels: Secrets You Didn’t Know
• 3 Days in Belgium Itinerary (3 Cities in 3 Days!)
• 11 Authentic Souvenirs From Belgium (+ Where To Buy Them)

Also, if you like our Brussels street art walking tours, you might also enjoy our:

• Self-Guided Chocolate Walking Tour For Brussels
• Banksy in Bristol Self-Guided Walking Tours

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We hope our Brussels comic strip murals walking tours come in handy when you next visit Brussels! Which mural are you most excited to see first? We’d love to know what you think so feel free to jot a few notes down in the comments below…

Do you like our self-guided walking tours? Why not share them around now?