Quai du Hainaut & MIMA: The Cultural Renaissance of the Canal

Why is it significant?

Pause along Quai du Hainaut before the imposing red-brick facade and soaring industrial chimneys of the former Belle-Vue brewery complex.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Pause along Quai du Hainaut before the imposing red-brick facade and soaring industrial chimneys of the former Belle-Vue brewery complex. Founded in nineteen thirteen by brewing pioneer Philémon Vandenstock, this sprawling brewery was once the largest producer of traditional Brussels gueuze and kriek lambic beer in the world, exporting bottled sour ales across the globe. The massive red-brick brewhouses and copper grain silos dominated the skyline of western Brussels, while fleets of wooden horse-drawn wagons delivered barrels of beer daily to cafes across the capital.

Lambic brewing is unique to the Senne Valley: instead of using cultivated brewer's yeast, warm wort is exposed to the ambient night air, allowing wild airborne yeasts like Brettanomyces bruxellensis to trigger spontaneous fermentation. The beer was then aged for years in giant oak casks along these very canal basements. Gueuze lambic is famously referred to as the Champagne of Brussels, blending young and old lambics that undergo a secondary fermentation inside thick glass champagne bottles sealed with cork and wire cages.

In twenty sixteen, the abandoned brewery reopened as the Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art, or MIMA, alongside creative startup hubs and a hotel. The museum celebrates cutting-edge visual subcultures, from street graffiti and skateboard graphics to digital installation art, turning industrial brewing heritage into a beacon of contemporary artistic dialogue.

Cross the Passerelle Comte de Flandre, the slender pedestrian footbridge spanning the canal. Look along the concrete embankments to spot vibrant murals and aerosol graffiti created by international street artists, turning the canal into an evolving open-air gallery that bridges Molenbeek with downtown Brussels. MIMA's rotating exhibitions have transformed this formerly neglected industrial canal zone into one of the most dynamic cultural destinations in Europe, drawing thousands of young international visitors every weekend.

Walk eastward along Rue Sainte-Catherine and turn onto Rue du Rempart des Moines to stand before the giant comic strip mural of Gaston Lagaffe.