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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Grammargeek (talk | contribs) at 19:57, 10 September 2007 (→Belgium: c/e: "greater Brussels is the capital cannot be defended" replaced by "being represented as... " for clarity of meaning & grammatical accuracy.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other places with the same name, see Brussels (disambiguation).
Brussels
Bruxelles / Brussel
Region
La Grand Place / Grote Markt
La Grand Place / Grote Markt
Flag of Brussels
Flag
Official seal of Brussels
Seal
Nickname(s): 
European Union capital, Comic City
Location of Brussels in Belgium
Location of Brussels in Belgium
CountryBelgium
RegionBrussels-Capital Region
Founded979
Founded (Region)June 18, 1989
Government
 • Mayor (Municipality)Freddy Thielemans
Area
 • Region162 km2 (62.5 sq mi)
Elevation
13 m (43 ft)
Population
 (2005)
 • Region1,024,492
 • Density6,324/km2 (16,391/sq mi)
 • Metro
1,975,000
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Websitewww.brussels.irisnet.be

Brussels (Template:Lang-fr, IPA: [bʁysɛl], and sometimes incorrectly [bʁyksɛl] by non-Belgian speakers of French; Template:Lang-nl, IPA: [ˈbrɵsəɫ]; Template:Lang-de, IPA: [brʏsəl]) is the capital of Belgium, of Flanders (consisting of both the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region) and of the French Community of Belgium, and it is the headquarters of most of the European Union's institutions. Brussels is the capital city, in the centre of Belgium, as well as the largest municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region. This municipality inside Brussels is correctly named The City of Brussels (French: Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles, Dutch: Stad Brussel), which is one of 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region (see also: Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region), with a total population of 1,024,492 inhabitants (1 January 2006). The municipality has a population of about 140,000. The Metropolitan area has between the 2,100,000[1] to more than 2,600,000 inhabitants.[2]

Brussels is also the political seat of NATO, the Western European Union (WEU) and EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (see: Political centre, below).

Etymology

The name Brussels comes from the old Dutch Bruocsella, Brucsella or Broekzele, which means "marsh (bruoc, bruc or broek) home (sella or zele)" or "home consisting of one room, in the marsh". "Broekzele" was spelt "Bruxelles" in French. In Belgian French pronunciation as well as in Dutch, the "k" eventually disappeared and "z" became "s", as reflected in the current Dutch spelling (French: /bʀy.ˈsel/; Dutch: /ˈbry.s(ɘ)l/ or /ˈbrɘ.s(ɘ)l/). The names of all other municipalities in the Brussels-Capital Region are also of Dutch origin, except for Evere, which is of Celtic origin.

History

Saint Michael and Gudula's Cathedral
Brussels City Hall
The Church of the Chapel at Brussels, drawing by Léon van Dievoet.

Mention was already made of Brussels around 695: Bishop Saint-Gery of Cambrai settled a chapel on a small island. Saint Vindicianus, also a bishop of Cambrai, is said to have died in the neighbourhood of Brussels. The founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, because Duke Charles transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gery chapel in Brussels. The Holy Roman Emperor Otto II gave the duchy of Lower Lotharingia to Charles, the banished son of King Louis IV of France in 977.

The county of Brussels was attributed to Lambert I of Leuven, count of Leuven around 1000. In 1047, his son Lambert II of Leuven founded the Saint Gudula chapter.

In the 12th century the small town became an important stop on the trade route from Bruges (Brugge) and Ghent to Cologne. The village benefited from this favourable position and, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time (1183/1184).

From 1357 to 1379, a new city wall was constructed as the former one was already proving to be too small: the inner ring or 'pentagon' now follows its course.

In the 15th century, by means of the wedding of heiress Margaret III of Flanders with Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a new Duke of Brabant emerged from the House of Valois (namely Antoine, their son), with another line of descent from the Habsburgs (Maximilian of Austria, later Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, married Mary of Burgundy, who was born in Brussels).

Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished.

Charles V, heir of the Low Countries since 1506, though (as he was only 6 years old) governed by his aunt Margaret of Austria until 1515, was declared King of the unified Spain, in 1516, in the Cathedral of Saint Gudule in Brussels.

Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, Charles became the new archduke of the Austrian Empire and thus the Holy Roman Emperor of the Empire "in which the sun does not set". It was in the Palace complex at the Brussels' Coudenberg, that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had greatly expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant, but it was sadly destroyed by fire in 1731. All that remains is an archaeological site.

In 1695 Brussels was attacked by General Villeroy under the orders of King Louis XIV of France. The bombardment caused great destruction: more than 4,000 houses were set on fire, including the mediaeval buildings on the Grote Markt or Grand Place.

In 1830, the Belgian revolution took place in Brussels after a performance of Auber's opera La Muette de Portici at De Munt or La Monnaie theatre. On July 21, 1831, Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians, ascended the throne, undertaking the destruction of the city walls and the construction of many buildings. Under Leopold II, the city underwent many more changes: the Zenne was culverted (as it brought diseases), the North-South Junction was built, and the Tervuren Avenue was laid out.

Beginning on May 10, 1940, Brussels was bombed by the German army; however, most of the war damage to the city took place in 1944–1945. The Heysel Stadium disaster took place in Brussels on May 29, 1985. The Brussels Capital Region was founded on June 18, 1989.

Brussels is famous for celebrating its history, as well as history in general; the city has over 100 museums.

Political centre

Capital

Belgium

Although some believe, wrongly, that the capital of Belgium is the entire Brussels-Capital Region, article 194 of the Belgian Constitution lays down that the capital of Belgium is the City of Brussels municipality.[3] Arguments that article 194's use of lower case for "ville de Bruxelles" and "stad Brussel" makes a subtle difference and means that greater Brussels being represented as the capital cannot be legally defended. However, although the City of Brussels is the official capital, the funds allowed by the federation and region for the representative role of the capital are divided among the 19 municipalities, and some national institutions are sited in the other 18 municipalities. Thus, while de jure only the City of Brussels is entitled to the title of capital city of Belgium, de facto the entire Region plays this role.

File:Europarliament.jpg
The Paul-Henri Spaak building of the European Parliament

Flanders and the French community

The Brussels-Capital Region is one of the three federated regions of Belgium, alongside Wallonia and the Flemish Region. Geographically and linguistically, it is a (bilingual) enclave in the (unilingual) Flemish Region. Regions are one component of Belgium's complex institutions, the three communities being the other component: the Brussels inhabitants must deal with either the French (speaking) community or the Flemish Community for matters such as culture and education.

Brussels is also the capital of both the French Community of Belgium (Communauté française de Belgique in French) and of Flanders (Vlaanderen); all Flemish capital institutions are established here: Flemish Parliament, Flemish government and its administration.

European Union

Main article: Brussels and the European Union

Two of the main institutions of the European Union - the European Commission and the Council of the European Union - have their headquarters in Brussels: the Commission in the Berlaymont building, and the Council in the Justus Lipsius building facing it. The third institution, the European Parliament, also has a parliamentary chamber in Brussels in which its committees meet and some of its plenary sessions are held (the other plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg, and its administrative headquarters are in Luxembourg).

International organizations

Brussels is also the political seat of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Western European Union (WEU), the World Customs Organization (WCO) and EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. Due to this, some countries have three ambassadors present in Brussels: the normal bi-lateral ambassador, the EU-ambassador, and finally the NATO-ambassador.

Folklore

Brussels' identity owes much to its rich folklore and traditions, among the liveliest in the country:

  • A good introduction to the Brussels local dialect and way of life can be obtained at the House of Toone. This theatre of marionettes, originally located in the Marolles area, is now delivering its slapstick comedy in a 1696 estaminet a stone throw away from the Grand Place/Grote Markt.
  • The Ommegang (Dutch: walking around) started in the 14th-century as a religious procession. Taking place every year in July, it now commemorates Charles V's Joyous Entry in the city in 1549. The colourful parade includes floats, traditional giant puppets, such as Saint Michael and Saint Gudula, and scores of folkloric groups, either on foot or on horseback, dressed in medieval garb. The parade ends in a pageant on the Grand Place.
  • The Meyboom (Dutch: tree of May) is an even older Brussels tradition (1308), which takes place paradoxically on August 9. After parading a young beech in the city, it is planted in a joyful spirit involving lots of music, brusseleir songs, and giant puppets.

Demographics

Linguistic situation

Bilingual signs in Brussels.

Brussels is officially bilingual, French, and Dutch, although French, mother tongue of the majority of the population, is the lingua franca and the most widely used language in Brussels. The historical indigenous language of Brussels were local Brabantian dialects of Dutch. Research in the city's archives shows that Dutch was by far the most widely used language in both the population and the local administration until the French occupation (1793–1815), even though French had been the language of the local governors since the Burgundian era. [4].

During the 19th century however, as literacy progressed, most dialect-speakers turned to French rather than to Dutch as their language of culture. The main reasons for this perhaps surprising fact is the higher prestige of the French language at the time - even the Flemish elites were French-speaking - and the perception that Dutch was the language of Catholic and rural Flanders, with which most people in Brussels felt they had little in common. Moreover, there was much discussion in Flanders at the time about the standard language: should it be standard Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands or a (still to be codified) standard form of Flemish ? This incertitude was an additional factor favouring French. As a result, people would often speak dialect at home or with friends but French in all other situations. Even today, it is not uncommon to meet (older) French-speaking "Bruxellois" who are unable to express themselves in standard Dutch but who speak or at least understand Brussels dialect.

A linguistic curiosity is the "Marollien" dialect, based on the Walloon of Liège and heavily influenced by the general (Dutch) Brussels dialect, which used to be spoken mostly in a central section of the city, the "Marolles/Marollen". Today, all Brussels dialects are on the verge of extinction, although some try to revive them (see links).

Nowadays, the Brussels Capital Region is officially bilingual French-Dutch. There are no official statistics on the first language of the Brussels population since the State-run decennial linguistic census has been abolished. All studies carried on can only be estimations. However, according to a 2001 study by Rudi Janssen, a sociolinguist, and a similar study conducted by E. Corijn (both affiliated with the VUB):[need quotation to verify]

  • 51 % of the Brussels population are native French-speakers (monolingual);
  • 8.5 % of the Brussels population are native Dutch-speakers (monolingual);
  • 10.2 % have both Dutch and French as a mother tongue or speak both languages;
  • 9.1% of monolingual French or Dutch-speakers learn the other language later in life (this probably concerns mostly French-speakers who learn Dutch [citation needed])
  • 19.8% speak French in combination with a language other than Dutch

The lingua franca is French, although knowledge of Dutch is considered highly desirable.[5] Janssen estimates that 35.40% of the population speaks Dutch either as a first or as a second language. One of the consequences of this change of attitude towards the Dutch language is, for example, that most children in Dutch-speaking schools in Brussels do not speak Dutch at home (see the official VGC figures for February, 2006)

The occasional imprecision of linguistic pairing can be quite amusing. Whilst some ancient streets have only their original Dutch name (e.g. Coudenberg), others were originally named in French and have had their later Dutch names revised. For instance until approximately 2004 the Rue du Beau Site in Ixelles/Elsene bore two bilingual nameplates, the older giving, as the Dutch version, the hastily translated Schoon Zicht Straat and the more recent giving the more idiomatic Welgelegenstraat.

It should be noted that due to the growth of the city of Brussels, the periphery, which is institutionally part of Dutch-speaking Flanders, has attracted a large French-speaking population. In some of the municipalities immediately bordering the Brussels Capital Region, the majority of the population is French-speaking, in a few cases numbering over 70%. This is one of the major sources of linguistic conflict in Belgium.

Universities and colleges

Brussels has several universities, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the Facultés Universitaires Saint Louis (FUSL), the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (KUB) and the Royal Military Academy (RMA). A satellite campus of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) is also located in Brussels: it is called "Louvain-en-Woluwe" or "UCL-Brussels", and hosts the faculty of Medicine of the university.

The Conservatoire Royal and the Koninklijk Conservatorium are drama schools in the city attended by many of the top actors and actresses to come out of Belgium.

Transport

Brussels metro (actually here premetro), de Brouckère station
Platforms at Brussels North station

Connections

Brussels is served by Brussels Airport, located in the nearby Flemish municipality of Zaventem, and by the much smaller so-called Brussels South Charleroi Airport, located near Charleroi (Wallonia), some 50km from Brussels. Brussels is also served by direct high-speed rail links: to the United Kingdom by the Eurostar train via the Channel Tunnel; to Amsterdam, Paris and Cologne by the Thalys; and to Cologne and Frankfurt by the German ICE.

Public transport

The Brussels metro dates back to 1976, but underground lines known as premetro have been serviced by tramways since 1968. A comprehensive bus and tram network also covers the city. Brussels also has its own port on the Willebroek canal located in the northwest of the city.

There are four companies managing public transport inside Brussels:

  • STIB/MIVB (metro, bus, tram; Brussels' Regional services)
  • NMBS/SNCB (train, organised on a Belgian scale)
  • De Lijn (buses based in Flanders)
  • TEC (buses based in Wallonia)

An interticketing system means that a STIB/MIVB ticket holder can use the train or long-distance buses inside the city. The commuter services operated by De Lijn, TEC and SNCB/NMBS will in the next few years be augmented by a metropolitan RER rail network around Brussels.

Since 2003 Brussels has had a car-sharing service operated by the Bremen company Cambio in partnership with STIB/MIVB and local ridesharing company taxi stop. In 2006 shared bicycles were also introduced.

Railway stations

The major stations in Brussels are on the North-South Junction:

Two more stations serve the EU district in Brussels. Trains towards Namur and Luxembourg call at:

The last two stations located in the centre of Brussels (they also are on the North-South Junction and operate only in rush hours) are:

  • Brussels Congress (French: Bruxelles-Congrès, Dutch:Brussel-Congres)
  • Brussels Chapel (French: Bruxelles-Chapelle, Dutch: Brussel-Kapellekerk)

Other railway stations in other Brussels municipalities include:

  • Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek
  • Etterbeek
  • Uccle Stalle - Ukkel Stalle
  • Uccle Calevoet - Ukkel Kalevoet
  • Jette
  • Merode
  • Delta
  • Saint-Job - Sint-Job
  • Forest Est - Vorst Oost
  • Forest Midi - Vorst Zuid
  • Sint-Agatha-Berchem - Berchem-Sainte-Agathe
  • Watermael - Watermaal
  • Boitsfort - Bosvoorde
  • Boondael - Boondaal
  • Meiser

Road network

In mediaeval times Brussels stood at the intersection of routes running north-south (the modern Hoogstraat/Rue Haute) and east-west (Gentsesteenweg/Chaussée de Gand-Grasmarkt/Rue du Marché aux Herbes-Naamsestraat/Rue de Namur). The ancient pattern of streets radiating from the Grote Markt/Grand'Place in large part remains, but has been overlaid by boulevards built over the River Zenne/Senne, the city walls and the railway junction between the North and South Stations.

As one expects of a capital city, Brussels is the hub of the fan of old national roads, the principal ones being clockwise the N1 (N to Breda), N2 (E to Maastricht), N3 (E to Aachen), N4 (SE to Luxembourg) N5 (S to Rheims), N6 (SW to Maubeuge), N8 (W to Koksijde) and N9 (NW to Ostend) [6]. Usually named steenwegen/chaussées, these highways normally run straight as a die, but on occasion lose themselves in a labyrinth of narrow shopping streets.

As for motorways, the town is skirted by the European route E19 (N-S) and the E40 (E-W), while the E411 leads away to the SE. Brussels has an orbital motorway, numbered R0 (R-zero) and commonly referred to as the "ring" (French: ring Dutch: grote ring). It is pear-shaped as the southern side was never built as originally conceived, owing to residents' objections.

The city centre, sometimes known as "the pentagon", is surrounded by the "small ring" (Dutch: kleine ring, French: petite ceinture), a sequence of boulevards formally numbered R20. These were built upon the site of the second set of city walls following their demolition. Metro line 2 runs under much of these.

On the eastern side of the city, the R21 (French: grande ceinture, grote ring in Dutch) is formed by a string of boulevards that curves round from Laken (Laeken) to Ukkel (Uccle). Some premetro stations (see Brussels metro) were built on that route. A little further out, a stretch numbered R22 leads from Zaventem to Sint-Job.

Conferences and world fairs

Photograph of the fifth conference in 1927.

Brussels hosted the famous fifth Solvay Conference in 1927, where physicists like Albert Einstein, Planck, Curie, Lorentz, Dirac, De Broglie, Bohr, Schrödinger, Pauli and Heisenberg discussed the path of the modern physics, specifically the new Quantum Theory. Einstein, disenchanted with Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle", remarked "God does not play dice". Bohr replied, "Einstein, stop telling God what to do." (See Bohr-Einstein debates). Seventeen of the twenty-nine attendees were or became Nobel Prize laureates. The building in which the conference took place (see picture) is now occupied by one of the high schools of the city's education system; Lycée Émile Jacqmain.

Brussels hosted the third Congrès international d'architecture moderne (Dutch:Internationaal Congres voor Moderne Architectuur) in 1930.

Two world fairs took place in Brussels, the Exposition universelle et internationale (1935) and the World Expo '58 in 1958. The Atomium, a 103 metre representation of an iron crystal was built for the Expo '58, and is still there, now renovated.

Places of interest

Old houses on Brussels' Grand Place or Grote Markt
File:RoyalPalaceBrussel Copyright200406KaihsuTai.jpg
The Royal Palace of Brussels

Notable parks

The Floral Carpet on the Grand Place in 2004
File:Palaisd'EgmontBrussels.jpg
The Egmontpaleis or Palais d'Egmont, seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a site for European diplomacy
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brussels.

Notable people from Brussels

See also: Notable people from Brussels

The most famous statue: Manneken Pis
Don Quijote & Sancho Panza statue at Place d’Espagne/Spanjeplein: Don Quijote

Sports clubs

Museums

Other

Twin cities

Notes

  1. ^ Earth Info, earth-info.nga.mil webpage:[1].
  2. ^ http://www.populationdata.net/pays/europe/belgique.php%7C Populationdata.net
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ Linguistic Usages in Brussels before 1794, [3] last accessed 14-Feb-2007
  5. ^ [4]
  6. ^ Belgian N roads
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