Top things to do in Halle, Belgium – Easy Half-day trip from Brussels | My Travelogue

Located just 20 minutes away from Brussels by fast train (or 40 mins by slow train) a trip to Halle doesn’t really require pre-planning and it can be an easy, spontaneous trip from Brussels by train! You don’t even have to do all of these in a single trip, multiple half-day trips are possible & easy as well! What you see here is perhaps 3-4 of my half-day trips to Halle from Brussels!

Quite amusingly, apart from the major cities like Brussels, Antwerp, etc., and University towns like Leuven, Gent, etc., a few other places like Halle, Mol, etc have a heavy expats population, esp. Indian population thanks to Colruyt, Nike, etc!

TOP THINGS TO DO IN HALLE

…apart from Hallerbos Bluebells festival…

HALLERBOS HYACINTEN – HALLE BLUE FOREST – FREE THINGS TO DO IN HALLE

Halle and Hallerbos go hand in hand. The best thing to do in Halle is, of
course, to visit Hallerbos, a blue-bell forest, right on time, in April, when
the whole forest looks like there’s a purple carpet laid on it. It is such a
magical thing! It is unbelievable. Here’s all about Hallerbos Bluebells forest
in another article. 

Hallerbos Hyacinten

Brussels <=> Charleroi canal of river Senna via Halle

Grazing lands beyond Malakoff Domain

Along the Brussels <=> Charleroi Canal at Halle

MURALS ON PACAPIME BUILDING & RAILWAY STATIONS – MOST INSTAGRAMMABLE LOCATIONS IN HALLE – FREE THINGS TO DO IN HALLE

I’ve been wanting to visit the stunning murals on the walls of the Pacapime
building along the canal for quite some time. Pacapime building is about 2km
from Halle Railway Station and I had been postponing a visit here, with
Atyudarini being little and to get her to walk long(ish) distances wouldn’t be fun.
Now that she’s older, I decided to head here. We took Atyudarini’s bike on the
train and while she biked along the canal, I walked (jogged/ran) beside
her. 

The design is called Enchanted Forest and is a creation of Gooze and Bozik, a
team from Russia; organized by Treepack Artist Collective. It covers a space
of 2000sqm, making it one of the largest murals in Europe. As the name
suggests, the mural depicts a magical forest where kids live in peace &
harmony with nature. It starts with a kid reading a book under a blanket (don’t tell me you haven’t done that when you were a young child). Then it
continues to 2 more kids who are making origami animals in a forest and
magically, those animals become real! There are also the ‘guardians’ of the
forest with a magic wand and a magical tree passage, which ‘gives life’ to the
origami animals! The half-origami and half-real deer was perhaps the most
intriguing piece for Atyudarini. Another kid is looking ‘at a bright future’
through his binocular. The style of the paintings is absolutely adorable and
the texture of the wall, adds to the effect. It really gives that magical
feeling! Being in Halle, of course, this mystical forest also has bluebells!
Here’s an interesting piece of information – the children depicted in the
mural are local kids from Halle!

Btw, if you’re interested in murals, 2 other interesting places to visit in
Halle would be the railway station of Halle itself and the railway station of
Lembeek, the next station to Halle. Halle railway station murals are called
‘Constellations’ depicting the Zodiac signs. This 180m wall is the work of
multiple artists. The Lembeek railway station murals were made by Nitra Art
& an NGO called Killerbee.

How to reach Halle murals of Pacapime building: 1.5km (18 mins walk) from Halle Railway Station

Halle Murals opening timings: Free

Halle Murals tickets: 24×7

MALAKOFF DOMAIN – MALAKOFF TOWER, EUROPEAN PINE MARTENS &
BATS – FREE THINGS TO DO IN HALLE

A short bike ride from Halle along the canal, after crossing the murals of the
Pacapime building, you’re almost at Malakoff Domain which spreads on either
side of river Senne. To the right is the Lembeek Castle (and the Lembeek
railway station) and to the left is a lot of greenery with the Malakoff Tower
standing proudly in the midst we went here, first. The whole place has beautiful greenery, so much so, that it was once
awarded the most beautiful place to visit in Halle. 

Malakoff Tower: Ages ago, the Malakoff Castle was here, however
today it has completely disappeared. The Malakoff tower is a folly and was
built in 1854 by Paul Claes, a jenever baron Paul Claes. The tower was never intended to be a castle and
neither was it a part of the Lembeek castle’s defense line, it was just a
folly, built for entertainment purposes! Being a Jenever Baron that Paul
Claes was, he threw a flamboyant garden party here where the Malakoff Battle
(during the Crimean War (1853-56) between France & Russia, at Malakoff in Ukraine) was re-enacted, staged!

It is possible to climb this tower and the view from atop to the surrounding
valley is stunning. There are 3 flights of stairs and the thickness of the
wall is about 2ft which makes it pretty safe to even look down from there,
without falling over, even for children. Quite amusingly, we saw many deer
from atop the tower and we immediately got down to go see the deer up &
close. There were about 20 deer here with an enclosure to protect them. If
luck works out, some deer might come closer to the fence. That said, this part
is technically not a part of Malakoff Domain and is private property.

From there we headed further ahead to the other end of the domain – Doktor
Spitaelslaan. Beyond this is entirely grasslands and if you’re lucky you’ll
spot horses or cows grazing away. We didn’t spot any. 

When compared to many other provincial domains, this is much smaller, but this
is much more significant for 2 reasons – Bats & European pine marten!
Both the Batbike Route and Boommarter Route go via Malakoff Domain. 

Boommarter route: The Boommarter route is a 14km biking route on the
outskirts of Halle to promote a living space for European Pine Martens. The
European Pine Martens requires a very large area well connected by forests. So
the idea was to connect the Malakoff domain, Lembeekbos, Maasdalbos, and
Hallerbos to welcome European Pine Martens back to this region. If you skip
Lembeekbos & Hallerbos, this is just a 9km route. That said, the portion
of the route within Malakoff Domain & Lembeek Castle is just 2 km. 

Though it is listed as ‘Least Concern’  in the Worldwide IUCN list,
within Flanders it is on the ‘Critically Endangered’ list due to loss of
habitat, which is why the idea Boommarter project came into being, to increase
its habitat. Today the animal is slowly but steadily increasing in numbers in
the region. Most probably you may not come across the European Pine Marten on
this route because, one – they are active in the evenings & nights, and
two – they shy away from humans (we aren’t really a friendly species, are
we?)!

Batbike route: As the name suggests, this is a biking route that goes
via many bat cellars! This is a 21km biking route from Buizingen to Lembeek
via Halle. Obviously, this route also goes via Malakoff Domain. Very close to
the waterbody in Malakoff Domain is this partially underground cellar which
serves as a cool & dark cave-like atmosphere for the bats to call, home!
This was most probably a part of the Brussels<=>Charleroi Canal of river
Senne which once went through the Malakoff Domaine, in a smaller size (the
size of the canal was later made bigger and redirected to as we see it today).
It was in a dilapidated condition which was completely renovated, but with a
rustic feel & rough edges to help the bats feel ‘at home’! A 37 m-long
corridor was added to help better ventilation, and there’s a gate at its end
which is what we see. Obviously, it is locked, to give the bats, privacy and
we cannot go in. The Batbike route continues across the River Senne canal to
Lembeek Castle. 

How to reach Malakoff Domain? 1.2km (14
mins walk) from Lembeek railway station. 1.3km (15 mins walk) from Pacapime
Building Murals.

Bats Cellar in Malakoff Domain

LEMBEEK CASTLE – FREE THINGS TO DO IN HALLE WITH KIDS

DEN AST MUSEUM –  TOP PLACES TO VISIT IN HALLE WITH KIDS

The only museum of Halle is Den AST museum and it is the local history museum.
Once upon a time, Halle has the most number of malthouses because it was beer
central! One of these malthouses, the Van Roye malthouse has now been
repurposed as Den AST Museum. It was a functional malthouse till
1984. 

Today, the museum is in 3 sections – The ground floor is dedicated to the religious importance of Halle, almost entirely about Saint Martin Basilica and the legends about it. 

The next floor is dedicated entirely to beer. This is even more special here since this was a brewery itself! The floor is very child friendly and begins with a lab coat that they could wear. Then there are the various steps of brewing that begin with the thrashing of hops! There are fake instruments that they could try out thrashing, lifting the sacks, and understanding the taste & color of toasted hops!

The upper floor is what is fantastic for kids! There’s a room dedicated to the Lembeek Procession which includes, a Lego set of the procession itself along with buttons to activate music, dance, etc. The next room is dedicated to makeovers! There are various clothes & accessories – princess costumes, knights costumes, cheerleader pompoms, hats, and many more things to deck up. This is where Atyudarini spent at least an hour! This is a small museum and to spend an hour just in this room was quite something!  

BASILICA OF SAINT MARTIN (SINT-MARTINUS BASILIEK) – CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF
HALLE

The main church of Halle is the Basilica of Saint Martin. The original chapel
here dates back to 1335 CE and a church dates back to 1409 CE. However, the
current structure belongs to 1775, built in a totally Baroque style
architecture. 

The altar has a sculpture of Our Lady of Halle. The sculpture dates back to
1267 by Sofia Van Thüringen, who is a descendant of Saint Elizabeth of
Hungary. It is all the more special for me because it depicts Mother Mary
breastfeeding Infant Jesus. According to the legends, her sculpture is black
in color because she caught all the cannonballs that were aimed at Halle
during the siege, which are on display as soon as you enter the church. One of the oldest parts of the church is in the Chapel of Trazegnies 1467 CE, to the right.
Here’s another old sculpture – the alabaster altarpiece in Renaissance style
dating back to 1533.

The crypt mentions 59 Miracles of Our Lady, which is why this is a
Basilica, which unfortunately I couldn’t since it was closed when I visited. The baptismal font in brass dates back to 1446 and are from
Tournai. The brass lectern in the form of an eagle with outspread wings also dates back to the 15th C CE.

Halle Railway Station Street Art – Zodiac – Aries

Halle Railway Station Street Art – Zodiac – Leo

View from atop Malakoff Tower (above & below)

HALLE ITINERARIES

HALLE ITINERARY BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT

1 Day Halle Itinerary (when it’s not the Carnival or Hallerbos)

Reach Halle Railway Station by SNCB-NMBS Belgian railways train 

Morning – Den Ast, Sint-Martinus Basiliek & La Senne viewpoint 

Afternoon – Walk along the canal to Pacapime building murals, continue to
Malakoff domain, climb Malakoff Tower, visit Lembeek castle, and return from
Lembeek railway station

1 Day Halle Itinerary during Hallerbos

Reach Halle Railway Station by SNCB-NMBS Belgian railways train 

Morning – Hallerbos

Afternoon Opt 1 – Den Ast, Sint-Martinus Basiliek & La Senne viewpoint 

Afternoon Opt 2 – Walk along the canal to Pacapime building murals, continue
to Malakoff domain, climb Malakoff Tower, visit Lembeek castle, and return
from Lembeek railway station

Half-day Halle Itinerary options

Opt 1 – Just Hallerbos

Opt 2 – Den Ast, Sint-Martinus Basiliek & La Senne viewpoint, walk along the canal to Pacapime building murals