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Experience the Flemish Masters in situ

Works by the Flemish Masters hang in the world’s major museums, but you only really get to know the masters in Flanders. It’s where they lived and worked and made their mark. In 2025, Flemish Masters in situ is taking you on a Master Tour. That tour features masterpieces in the places for which they were created.

Pieter Bruegel, Peter Paul Rubens and Jan van Eyck: three artists who are household names, and each in a class of his own. They and their many successors had a huge impact on the arts. Their oeuvre and genius echo through history, right up to this day. You can see their masterpieces throughout the Western world. Step into any major museum and you will bump into a Flemish Master, but the home of these grandmasters was Flanders. It’s where they lived and worked. It’s where they found their inspiration. It’s where their magnificent art saw the light of day.

In Flanders, you can still find hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and other works of art in the places where they were once created or where they have been for centuries. In countless churches, monasteries, city palaces and castles, you stand face to face with this centuries-old art. You can admire the works in the place where the artist actually once stood. You can see what the master himself saw: the incidence of light, the space surrounding the piece. You can almost taste the atmosphere of these places. In situ, you get closer to the essence than ever.

This is why Flanders is delighted to be taking you on The Master Tour in 2025 to follow in the footsteps of the Flemish Masters. It is composed of connecting threads between those special places where these great artists are at home. Masters by the Lys takes you through the villages along the River Lys, nicknamed the Golden River. This green journey of discovery immerses you in a world full of picturesque houses, artist ateliers and inspiring museums. In turn, Masters by the sea listens to the lure of the North Sea. Great artists such as James Ensor, Constant Permeke and Paul Delvaux found themselves unable to resist it. Artists’ homes, in turn, will take you through the whole of Flanders, from west to east. This tour gives you the keys to the kingdoms of our Flemish Masters. And that’s only part of the dazzling offering.

These expeditions take you to great art in very special places. St. Bavo’s Cathedral, for example, is home to the mythical Ghent Altarpiece. Or Dieric Bouts’ masterpieces in St Peter’s Church in Leuven. Or the Museum Plantin-Moretus, where Rubens’ portraits have taken their viewers’ breath away for centuries.

The list is wonderfully extensive. Now, it’s up to you to go on a voyage of discovery. Do you know what could be a great New Year’s resolution for 2025? To go on a Master Tour in Flanders.

Things to consider before traveling

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Some tips to consider while traveling

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