Friday Golden Hour Walk — Through the Red Cloister & Sonian Forest

🗓 Date: Friday
🕖 Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Meeting Point: Verbandendreef tram stop (Tram 44 from Montgomery)
🚶 Trail Length: 6.6 km | ⏱ Duration: ~1 hour 40 min | 🥾 Difficulty: Easy
🔁 Loop Trail | 144 m Elevation Gain

As golden hour descends on Brussels, we invite you to walk a trail where history, nature, and the city quietly converge.

Our path winds through the Red Cloister (Rouge Cloître), a former monastery founded in 1367 by Augustinian monks. Tucked beside quiet ponds and thick trees, the priory was once a place of religious retreat, manuscript copying, and, centuries later, artistic inspiration. In the 17th century, it attracted painters from the Brussels school, including the famed landscape artist Jacques d'Arthois.

Now part of the Sonian Forest, a UNESCO-listed remnant of the ancient beech woodlands that once blanketed much of Western Europe, this area has seen everything from monastic seclusion to urban expansion. Today, it’s a peaceful green borderland where joggers, families, and walkers reclaim quiet just outside the capital.

📍 We meet at 7PM at Verbandendreef tram stop, reachable via Tram 44 from Montgomery, a scenic route that passes through one of Brussels' most leafy, historically layered suburbs.

Expect:

Pond views, forest air, and historic priory ruins

Potential wildlife sightings (deer, herons, bats at dusk)

A short visit to the botanical garden near the priory

Kid-friendly pace and terrain (dogs welcome)

Getting There:
🚇 Metro Line 1 → Montgomery → Tram 44 → Verbandendreef