Brussels comic strip walk and Comics Art Museum (2026)

Brussels · Pentagon & Marolles · on footUpdated November 2026Murals free · Comics Art Museum adult €14 (2026)

The Brussels comic strip walk is free: you follow painted comic-book walls through the old centre, from Gaston Lagaffe near the Galeries to Tintin above Manneken Pis and the Marolles beyond. Start or finish at the Comics Art Museum on Rue des Sables, where an adult ticket costs €14 in 2026, and a central loop with the museum fills a comfortable day.

The trail is officially called the Comic Book Route (Parcours BD in French, Stripverhalenroute in Dutch). The City of Brussels started it in the early 1990s to honour Franco-Belgian comics, and its own list now runs to 73 walls, from the Pentagon out to Laeken and Haren. visit.brussels counts over 80 across the region. You won't see them all, and you shouldn't try.

I checked the museum's prices and hours on comicscenter.net and the mural addresses on the City of Brussels route page on 11 November 2026.

Is the Brussels comic strip route free?

Yes, entirely. The murals are painted on the side walls of houses, shops and bars in public streets, so there's no ticket, no opening time and no queue. You need comfortable shoes and either the city's online map or the list of addresses below.

Here's the thing nobody tells you: there are almost no signs. A few of the oldest walls now carry QR codes with background text, added by the city from 2021, but nothing points you from one mural to the next. Most people who give up halfway do so because they tried to navigate from memory. Save the addresses in your maps app before you set off.

Murals also come and go. visit.brussels notes that some disappear each year while new ones appear, so a wall listed in an old blog post may now be a blank facade. The city's page is the list to trust.

Which comic murals are worth seeing first?

If you only have two or three hours, stay inside the Pentagon, the central ring of boulevards, where the classics are a few minutes apart. These are the ones I send friends to, with the street as given by the City of Brussels.

If one wall had to make the cut, it's Tintin. It shows Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock coming down a fire escape on Rue de l'Etuve, the short street between the Grand-Place side and Manneken Pis. Look up on your left as you walk downhill from the statue.

What's the best route for a comic strip walk?

Start at the Comics Art Museum and walk south and downhill to the Marolles. This loop links the strongest central murals in about three hours at a gentle pace, ends near lunch, and on a Sunday finishes at the Jeu de Balle flea market.

1. Comics Art Museum, Rue des Sables 20. Go in at 10:00 if you're visiting, or just look at the Horta hall from the entrance.
2. Gaston Lagaffe on Rue de l'Ecuyer, then cut through the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert to the Grand-Place.
3. Ric Hochet on Rue des Bons Secours, then Broussaille, Victor Sackville and Le Passage along Rue du Marché au Charbon.
4. Tintin on Rue de l'Etuve and Olivier Rameau on Rue du Chêne, both around Manneken Pis.
5. Blake & Mortimer on Rue du Temple and Quick & Flupke on Rue Notre-Seigneur, as you climb into the Marolles.
6. Benoît Brisefer at Rue Haute 119 and La Patrouille des Castors at Rue Blaes 200, a few steps from Place du Jeu de Balle.

The flea market on the square runs every morning, and Sunday is the busy day. If your walk lands on a weekend morning, the waffle truck on the square is in my Liège vs Brussels waffle guide.

For a second walk, visit.brussels maps a Sainte-Catherine and canal section at 5 km and about 3 hours on foot, rated family-friendly. It takes in Cubitus on Rue de Flandre, Spike and Suzy (Bob & Bobette) on Rue de Laeken and the Corto Maltese wall on Quai de la Voirie. Pair it with Néron on Place Saint-Géry and the two Rue de la Buanderie walls, and you've covered most of the famous names in the centre.

The Laeken and Haren murals are a different outing. visit.brussels lists that section at about 7 km and 4 hours, on foot and by bus. I'd only do it if you're already out at the Atomium, where Le Petit Spirou sits on Boulevard du Centenaire.

How much is the Comics Art Museum in 2026?

An adult ticket costs €14 at the Comics Art Museum in 2026. Ages 12 to 25 and visitors over 65 pay €11, children aged 6 to 11 pay €6, and under-6s go free, according to the museum's own price page.

Booking online is optional. The museum states plainly that online tickets are not fast-lane tickets, so everyone queues at the desk and is scanned at the entrance. Free-entry pass holders queue too. The Brussels Card counts here as a full museum entry, so if you're comparing card against tickets, my Brussels Card break-even guide shows where €14 tips the maths.

What are the Comics Art Museum opening hours?

The museum opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, with last tickets at 17:00. It's closed on Mondays except in July and August, and it opens on public holidays apart from Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

The Comic Strip Library's reading rooms upstairs are closed from 12 November and reopen on Saturday 5 December. That only matters if you were planning to read there; the exhibitions stay open.

The museum is at Rue des Sables 20, about ten minutes on foot from Brussels-Central, uphill towards the Botanique. If your walk ends in the Marolles, plan the museum first rather than climbing back.

Is the Comics Art Museum worth visiting?

Worth it if you grew up with Tintin, Spirou, Lucky Luke or the Smurfs, and worth it for the building alone if you like Art Nouveau. Skip it if comics leave you cold: the free mural walk gives you the best of the theme outdoors.

The museum fills the former Waucquez textile warehouse, designed by Victor Horta in 1906, and the entrance hall with its iron and glass roof is the reason I'd step inside even on a short trip. Upstairs, the permanent rooms trace how Belgian comics were made and published, and the temporary shows change through the year. A lot of the original material is in French, so ask at the desk what is available in English. Allow about 90 minutes.

Two temporary shows are on this winter. Mangatopia, a large exhibition on manga, runs from 16 October 2026 to 17 May 2027, and Mayhem at the Workshop! runs in the gallery until 31 January 2027. Twice a month, on a Sunday from 14:00 to 15:30, a cartoonist leads a sketching session, which is a good wet-afternoon plan with older kids. The museum's events page gives the exact dates.

If the Horta hall gets you, the Art Nouveau walk through Saint-Gilles and Ixelles is the natural next half-day.

When is the best time to do the walk?

A dry weekday morning, starting at 10:00 at the museum. The murals are on narrow streets, and by early afternoon the area around Manneken Pis is packed, which makes the Tintin wall hard to photograph.

November light fades by about 17:00, and most murals aren't lit at night. In December the walk crosses the Winter Wonders market around the Grand-Place and Bourse, which adds atmosphere and crowds in equal measure. Rain is the other factor: none of the walk is covered except the Galeries Royales, so on a wet day I'd do the museum and stop after Tintin.

The Brussels Comic Strip Festival takes over the city each September, with parades and signings. If your trip falls then, check visit.brussels for the year's dates before you book.

The short version

Do the walk, because it's free and it takes you through the parts of the centre worth seeing anyway. Pay €14 for the museum if comics or Horta interest you, and go on a weekday morning. Nine years in Brussels, and I still check Rue de l'Etuve every time I pass, to make sure Haddock hasn't lost his footing on that fire escape.