15 Brussels Hotels Built on a Jail, a Crypt and an Insurance Office
The hotel on the site of the old city jail behind the Town Hall, the 1909 grand dame that stood empty for seventeen years, a hotel inside Europe’s first glass-roofed arcade, and a 1930s house for lovers with a discreet lift.
Brussels puts its hotels on the sites of a jail, an abbey and a revolution’s crypt, and in the office towers of IBM and an insurer. This list has the Amigo, built where the city jail stood behind the Town Hall, the Astoria, opened in 1909 and reopened under Corinthia in 2024 after seventeen years empty, the Hôtel des Galeries inside the 1847 Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, and Le Berger, the 1930s hôtel de rendez-vous with a lift built so couples arrived unseen.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Each hotel’s name links to its own site, so you see the current rate and book direct.
The grand hotels
Hotel Amigo · Grand Place / Îlot Sacré
The Amigo opened in 1957 on the site of the Amigo, the city jail that stood behind the Town Hall from the sixteenth century. The name, by the hotel’s telling, comes from Spanish soldiers who misheard the Flemish word vrunte, meaning jail, as vriend, meaning friend. Rocco Forte Hotels bought it in 2000 and reopened it in 2002 after a redesign by Olga Polizzi.
Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels · Quartier Royal / Rue Royale
The Astoria opened in 1909 to designs by Henri Van Dievoet, ahead of the 1910 Brussels World’s Fair. Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower and Salvador Dalí are among the guests the hotel lists from its first century. It closed in 2007, stood empty for seventeen years, and reopened under Corinthia in December 2024.
Steigenberger Icon Wiltcher’s · Avenue Louise / Ixelles
Wiltcher’s opened on Avenue Louise in 1913, by the hotel’s account. It reopened in 1993 behind the restored Belle Époque facade as the Conrad Brussels, which it remained until Steigenberger took over in 2013. It now trades as Steigenberger Icon Wiltcher’s, the Icon label marking the top tier of the brand.
Hotel Le Plaza · Boulevard Adolphe Max / De Brouckère
Le Plaza opened in 1930 on the Boulevard Adolphe Max, designed by Michel Polak, the architect of the Villa Empain and the Résidence Palace. Its Théâtre Le Plaza, an auditorium in the Hispano-Moorish style, survives inside the hotel as an events venue. The hotel closed in 1976 and reopened in 1996 after a full restoration, by its own account.
DoubleTree by Hilton Brussels City · Place Rogier / Botanique
The DoubleTree opened in 1908 as the Palace Hôtel on Place Rogier, built for the Belgian hotelier Georges Marquet, and the building is recorded in the Brussels regional heritage inventory. It operated as the Crowne Plaza Brussels Le Palace until 2021, when it became Belgium’s first DoubleTree by Hilton.
Old buildings with new lives
The Dominican · Monnaie / De Brouckère
The Dominican stands on the site of a fifteenth-century Dominican abbey, next to the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, by the hotel’s account. The painter Jacques-Louis David lived in exile on the Rue Léopold and died there in 1825; the hotel places his house on its footprint. It opened in 2007, run by the Dutch Carlton Hotel Collection.
Hotel Le Dixseptième · Grand Place / Gare Centrale
Le Dixseptième occupies a seventeenth-century house that the hotel says served as the residence of the Spanish ambassador, on the Rue de la Madeleine, one of the old lanes between the Grand Place and the Coudenberg hill. The rooms are named after Belgian painters, from Brueghel to Magritte.
Hôtel des Galeries · Grand Place / Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert
The Hôtel des Galeries sits inside the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, the glass-roofed arcade opened in 1847 to designs by Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar. The arcade claims to be the first covered shopping gallery of its kind in Europe, predating Milan’s Galleria by two decades. The hotel opened in 2014 with interiors by the Paris designer Fleur Delesalle.
Juliana Hotel Brussels · Place des Martyrs / Rue Neuve
The Juliana stands on the Place des Martyrs, the neoclassical square laid out from 1775 by Claude Fisco. The crypt under the square holds the remains of fighters killed in the 1830 revolution that created Belgium. The hotel opened in 2019 behind the square’s eighteenth-century facades.
Latroupe Le Berger · Porte de Namur / Ixelles
Le Berger was built in the 1930s as an hôtel de rendez-vous, a discreet house for lovers, with a lift designed so couples arrived unseen, by the hotel’s account. It was restored and reopened as a hotel in 2010 with its Art Deco rooms and original fittings kept, and now trades under the Latroupe hospitality group.
JAM Hotel Brussels · Saint-Gilles / Chaussée de Charleroi
The JAM occupies a former art school on the Chaussée de Charleroi in Saint-Gilles, converted by the Brussels designer Lionel Jadot. It opened in 2016 with a rooftop pool and bar above the district.
Post-war landmarks
The Hotel Brussels · Boulevard de Waterloo / Porte Louise
The Hotel opened in 1967 as the Hilton Brussels, a twenty-seven-storey tower on the Boulevard de Waterloo, and remains the tallest hotel in the city, by its own account. Pandox bought the building in 2010 and dropped the Hilton flag in 2013, renaming it The Hotel.
The Hoxton, Brussels · Botanique / Saint-Josse
The Hoxton occupies the Victoria Regina tower, a Brutalist 1970s block built as IBM’s Belgian headquarters, by the Botanique. It opened in 2023 as the Hoxton brand’s first hotel in Belgium.
Mix Brussels · Watermael-Boitsfort / Boulevard du Souverain
Mix occupies the former headquarters of the insurer La Royale Belge, a 1970 modernist landmark by René Stapels and Pierre Dufau beside the Woluwe ponds. The restored building won a 2026 RIBA International Award for Excellence. The hotel opened in 2023 with interiors by Lionel Jadot.
Radisson Collection Grand Place Brussels · Monnaie / Rue du Fossé aux Loups
A section of the first city wall, built in the thirteenth century, stands inside the Radisson’s atrium, by the hotel’s account. It opened in 1990 as the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel and took the Radisson Collection name after a refurbishment. Yves Mattagne’s two-Michelin-star Sea Grill ran in the hotel from 1990 until 2020.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a grand hotel with a documented past, an old building with a new life, or a post-war landmark with a name attached. Comfort alone did not qualify.
Why is the Métropole not on the list?
It has been closed since 2020 and is being redeveloped. It goes on the list when it reopens.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Each hotel’s name links to its own site, so you see the current rate and book direct.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Brussels run to Bruges and Ghent, to Antwerp, to Waterloo, to Leuven, or to Dinant and the Ardennes. The hotels around the Grand Place and Gare Centrale sit closest to the trains and the coach pickups.