Hotel Métropole

The only 19th-century hotel still standing in Brussels, and the place where the 1911 Solvay Conference was held — the photograph of Einstein, Marie Curie, Planck, Rutherford, and two dozen of the greatest physicists in history, all assembled in the hotel's reception rooms, is one of the most iconic images in the history of science. Currently under renovation, with reopening expected late 2026. 267 rooms, and the Café Métropole, whose heated terrace on the Place de Brouckère was for decades the best people-watching spot in the Belgian capital.