Brussels (French: Bruxelles) is the capital of
both Belgium and Flanders, and is the de facto capital of the
European Union. Although many travelers opt for a city trip to
Bruges, Antwerp or Ghent, Brussels should certainly not be
overlooked. Brussels is known for the beautiful Grand Place with the
photogenic Manneken Pis statue nearby. In addition, the European
quarter is worth a visit for its modern architecture, as is the
renovated Atomium.
The city arose around the eleventh century
around a small harbor on the Senne. The name Brussels is derived
from 'Broek-Zele' which means settlement near the marsh. Although
culturally and historically the city belongs to Flanders, it was
strongly Frenchified in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
As a result, the city belongs to the Flemish cultural area, but
French is the dominant language (although the city is officially
bilingual, which means that all street names are displayed in both
Dutch and French). Due to the complex situation, the city is
politically outside the Flemish Region, but it is the capital of
Flanders.
The city has a strong international image. Due to
the establishment of European and international institutions,
English is also increasingly spoken. The city is therefore known by
several names: Brussels in Dutch, Brüssel in German, Bruxelles in
French and Brussels in English. Bruxelles is not pronounced by
French-speaking Belgians as it is written, but they say brussèl.
Inhabitants of France pronounce it brukselles.
Grand Place (Grand Place). Historic square where the Gothic town hall
of Brussels is also located. Several tourists say "this is the most
beautiful square in Europe, perhaps in the world". The Grand Place of
Brussels is completely surrounded by historical buildings. You can find
buildings from the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Because the
market was almost completely destroyed by French guns (except for the
town hall) in 1697, it was rebuilt, and has hardly been changed since,
the buildings form a beautiful whole, and it is considered one of the
most beautiful in Europe. You imagine yourself completely in the Middle
Ages. You can find historical buildings with a nice name such as: the
bread house (where the clothes of Manneke Pis are kept), Den Coninck van
Spaignien, Den Cruywagen, Den Sac, De Wolvin, De Vos, De Sterre, De
Zwane, In Den Gulden Boom, The Rose, Den Berg Thabor, The House of the
Dukes of Brabant, The Gulden Boot, The Pigeon, The Ammans Room. All the
buildings are oriented vertically, so tall and narrow in construction,
in the direction of God. The dukes of Brabant wanted to show that they
were a bit more than the guilds and you can see that, their building is
ten times as large. If you don't know where the Grand Place is, you
should always walk down, the Grand Place is a low point in Brussels.
Free.
Brussels Town Hall, Grote Markt/Grand Place. It is a monumental
building, a beautiful example of Gothic architecture. Two architects
worked on this building and you can see that, if you look closely you
can see that there are several asymmetries in the building, the most
striking is the entrance gate, which is not in the middle. If you then
look left and right of the tower it will become clear. The town hall
opens its doors, but it is rare that you can see all the rooms, if you
have the chance you should do it, it is beautifully decorated.
Everard 't Serclaes (Near the Grote Markt). Whoever rubs his hand over
this statue will be married within a year. Wonder if this is a man or a
woman?
The fair. The stock exchange building of Brussels where
Euronext Brussels is, neoclassical building. There are cozy cafes around
the Beurs.
Grass market. If you go outside Central Station and you
walk a few hundred meters further, you will arrive at the Grasmarkt.
Cozy market and a nice street.
Sint-Hubertus Galleries (Entrances:
Grasmarkt, Beenhouwerstraat, Arenbergstraat and Predikherenstraat.).
Architect: Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar. Beautiful large Neo-Renaissance
shopping arcade and in 1847 also the very first covered shopping street
in the world (of that size), it is literally a building on a large foot,
the glass dome is 20-30 meters high and 200 meters long. You will find
luxurious shops with pralines (Neuhaus) and luxurious cafes. The gallery
consists of the Queen's Gallery with the much smaller Prince's Gallery
to its right and, in its extension, across Beenhouwerstraat, the King's
Gallery. In the middle, the linearity of the gallery is broken by an
obtuse angle, which gives an infinite visual effect, because you cannot
see the back. You have the best view of the gallery when you are on the
first floor, but you can't just go up there. The Sint-Hubertus Gallery
was built on a place that used to be a dirty and poorly reputed
neighborhood (Sint-Huybrechtstraat). It formed the direct connection
between the Grote Markt and the Warmoesberg, where a new chic
neighborhood had arisen around 1800. The innovative combination of glass
and steel allowed people to shop indoors under the sunlight and without
the rain. Seven of these galleries were originally built in Brussels,
three of which still exist, the Sint-Hubertus Gallery, the Bortier
Gallery and le Passage Nord.
Vossenplein/ Fox Square. daily
07:00-14:00. Flea market in the heart of the Marolles. On Saturdays and
Sundays, the offer is more extensive and perhaps a bit more expensive,
since tourists then walk past the stands in dense droves. The sisters of
Mary of Collentes gave their name to the Marolles in the Middle Ages.
These sisters de Maricollen cared for the lepers who were banished
outside the city walls and came to this place. Until 1845 there was a
locomotive factory on the Vossenplein called Les ateliers de Mr Renard.
That's how the Vossenplein got its Dutch name, but it was also a popular
place to play handball on the handball court and that's how the square
got its French name: place du jeu-de-balle. Kaatsspelplaats became the
unofficial Dutch name. At the end of the 19th century, local residents
could go to the Fourneau Economique for a cheap meal. The Fourneau
Economique stood in the center of the square. From 1902 to 1949, a
public bathing place also stood there. You will find numerous cafes
around the Vossenplein. Den Skieven Architek (The crooked architect) is
definitely worth a visit. The name refers to Poelaert, the architect of
the gigantic courthouse, who had hundreds of houses razed to the ground
in order to build his courthouse. He was therefore little liked in the
Marolles. Skieven Architek is therefore the expletive par excellence in
Brussels if you want to drive someone into the ground.
Porte de Hal.
Tue-Fri 09:30-17:00, Sat Sun 10:00-17:00. Leave the Vossenplein via the
Blaesstraat at café In den Blauwen Lemmen. The second street on the left
is the Aanaardingstraat. You walk into it until you reach the Zuidlaan.
Diagonally in front of you you see the Hallepoort. This is a remnant of
the second city wall that enclosed an area of 509 ha and contained 74
towers and 7 city gates. Until 1976, the Hallepoort housed an impressive
collection of weapons and all kinds of antiquities. But the building was
so dilapidated that restoration was necessary. Since 2008, the Porte de
Hal is open to the public again. Curiosities of the collection are the
mounted stallion of Archduke Albrecht and the mare of the infante
Isabelle. €5.00.
Atomium, Atomium Square (Atomium Square), ☎ +32 2
475 4777. Open every day from 10:00-18:00. During weekends and the
tourist season it is a bit of a queue.. Remarkable monument that
represents a greatly enlarged iron crystal (magnified 160 billion times
to be correct) and was built on the occasion of the Expo '58 world
exhibition. The height of the Atomium is 108 meters and in the top
sphere you can eat in the restaurant 'Atomium' while enjoying the view.
It has recently been beautifully renovated and in the evening you can
admire the beautiful dynamic lighting, for which extensive use has been
made of ecological LED lighting. The plan for Expo '58 envisaged that
the Atomium would be demolished after the exhibition; it turned out
differently, the Atomium has become the symbol of Brussels and perhaps
of Belgium. The 9 spheres that make up the Atomium represent the then 9
provinces, Belgium is currently divided into 10 provinces. On top you
have a beautiful view of the city of Brussels and the surrounding area.
For children and schools there is a special sphere with futuristic beds
in which you can spend the night. At the foot of the Atomium are large
flat natural stones on which you can lie with your back, giving you a
beautiful view of the sky with the flickering lights of the Atomium. You
have a beautiful view of the Atomium from the Kraaiberg in Grimbergen.
Entrance fee: €9.00 for adults, €6.00 for children, students and
seniors, children under 12 enter for free.
Mini Europe (near the
Atomium). Very nice for the children, you can walk around in a theme
park where all major cities of Europe and the sights are depicted on a
small scale.
Martyrs Square.
Cafe Falstaff, Rue Henri Maus 19.
Superb cafe built in Art Deco and Art Nouveau style.
Scientastic (In
metro station 'Beurs'). 101 interactive and surprising scientific
experiments. €7.90; children €5.30.
Musees Royaux des Beaux- Arts/ Royal Museum of Fine Arts
The famous red light district of Rue d'Aerschot is
located at the rear of Brussels North station. It is not really a cozy
neighborhood, but it is an attraction in itself. The cars drive at
walking pace to see the ladies of pleasure, but because of the many
accidents involving cyclists, the municipality of Schaerbeek has decided
to reverse the direction of the street so that the cars can see the
cyclists coming. In the middle of the street is a church, if you have
sinned you can immediately go to confession. If you are in
Brussels-North, take a look at the (official) graffiti on the wall at
the bus platforms of De Lijn. They are very recently applied huge
airbrush paintings with an amazing eye for detail. The themes are
detailed drawings of people's heads.
Town Hall of Schaerbeek
Royal
Saint Mary's Church
Herb garden (Botanique), ideal for a walk, a picnic or
just sitting on a bench by the pond.
Proximus and Belgacom towers,
the high-rise buildings of Brussels are concentrated around the
Brussels-North station, the most striking skyscrapers are the Proximus
towers, which are illuminated at night with the colors of Proximus
(purple-blue). On the thirtieth floor (approximately) there is a bridge
that goes from one tower to the other.
Dexia Tower
finance tower
Ellipse Tower
Madou Tower
Museum of Ancient Art, Regentschapsstraat 3 (near the
Royal Palace)
Museum of Modern Art, Regentschapsstraat 3
Both
museums have an exceptional collection of art, and can be visited for
free on the first Wednesday afternoon of the month, on other days for
€2.00 to €5.00.
Museum Kanal (Centre Pompidou), Akenkaai, ☎ +32 2 435
1360, e-mail: info@kanal.brussels. 12:00-22:00, closed on Tuesdays.
Museum of modern art in a former Citroën garage. €14.00.
Autoworld,
museum of the automobile, located on the Cinquantenaire.
Beer Museum,
the Grand Place. It is a very small museum that can be visited in less
than half an hour. At the end you will also be offered a fresh pint.
The Cantillon Brewery, Rue Gheude 56, Anderlecht. Also called the gueuze
museum, here you can see how the famous beers 'gueuze' and 'kriek' and
other types of beer are brewed in a traditional way and you can taste
beer. The brewery is still fully economically active, you can walk
around while there is business activity. The people are very friendly
and speak with a nice greasy Brussels accent. If you buy several
bottles, you will be helped with your cargo up to the trunk of your car.
You can get the beer they brew here all over Belgium, albeit in the
better pubs. Buy it here because you pay at least € 7.00 for it in a
café.
Musée Schaerbeekois de la Bière, Avenue Louis Bertrand 33-35,
Schaerbeek, e-mail: info@museeschaerbeekoisdelabiere.be. This museum was
founded by volunteers because of their great love for Belgian beer. You
can see the history of beer and taste beer. They are real Brusselleirs,
if you like to hear a Brussels Vloms accent you have to be here. A real
Brusseleir knows neither Dutch nor French, he speaks "Brussels" and that
is a bliss to hear. You can drink a pint with the owners and have a nice
chat. Buy the museum's home-brewed beer here.
Musical Instruments
Museum, in the beautiful Art Nouveau Old England building.
Army
Museum, Cinquantenaire Park 3, nice museum with a lot of military
equipment such as cannons and airplanes. During the holidays, workshops
are given for children who can then completely lose themselves in their
camouflage clothing and with camouflage make-up.
The royal museum of
art and history located next to the Cinquantenaire Park and within
walking distance of the army museum and autoworld. It has a rich
collection on Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome and non-European
civilizations.
Museum of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29,
Brussels. 10:00-18:00, closed on Mondays. The Gallery of the Dinosaurs
is an imposing restored hall of about 3000 m². There are 22 small and 7
large skeletons. 11 Dinosaurs are just as they were when they were found
a good 100 years ago in the coal mine of Bernissart in Belgium. €7.00.
Trainworld, Place Princess Elisabeth 5, Schaarbeek (In and at the
station of Schaarbeek). 10:00-17:00, closed on Mondays. Belgian train
museum, newly opened in September 2015. €10.00.
Basilica of Koekelberg, Basilica forecourt 1 (Parvis
de la Basilique 1). Church: 08:00-17:00, panorama: 09:00-17:00 (summer)
and 10:00-16:00 (winter). The basilica is the fifth largest church in
the world. Leopold II dreamed of having a religious building that was as
large in appearance as the largest civil building in Brussels (the
Palace of Justice). The plateau of Koekelberg was chosen. You can see
the Basilica of Koekelberg from anywhere in Brussels. It was built in
honor of Belgium's 75th birthday, in neo-Gothic style and a lot of
marble has been used for the Art Deco interior. Some speak of a dragon
of a building, others are completely crazy about it, the basilica always
provokes reactions. From the balcony you can enjoy a view over Brussels.
The basilica is a bustling monument, the army does its exercises there,
there are always exhibitions.
Church of Laeken, King Baudouin, among
others, is buried here.
Saint
Michael and Saint Gudula Church (Saint Gudula Cathedral), Saint
Gudula Square, Treurenberg, ☎ +32 2 217 83 45, fax: +32 2 219 96 55,
e-mail: michgdl@bxl.catho.be. Monday-Friday 07:30-18:00, Saturday
07:30-15:30, Sunday 14:00-18:00. Prince Philippe and Prince Laurent,
among others, were married here, near Brussels-Central station. Free
guided tours every Saturday at 2 pm (except when there is a wedding or
funeral). Free.
Beguinage Church (Église
Saint-Jean-Baptiste-au-Béguinage), Begijnhofstraat, ☎ +32 2 411 62 56,
e-mail: alliet.d@skynet.be. Built as a church of the beguinage, founded
before 1247 outside the first city walls. Destroyed during the Calvinist
occupation from 1577 to 1585, and rebuilt in Baroque style in 1657 with
a very beautiful facade.
The Black Tower: one of the few remnants of the old
city wall, unfortunately almost completely enclosed by modern buildings.
De Munt: this is where the Belgian Revolution broke out after a
screening of Portici's Stomme in 1830.
Saint-Géry : this is where
Brussels was born.
The Sablon
The little Zavel,
The Palace of
Justice, when it was founded in the 19th century, this eclectic building
was the largest in the world, a megalomaniac project of King Leopold II,
who also had the central avenues of Brussels built. The architect is
Poulaert, not very popular among some Brussels residents because the
former residents were forced to move elsewhere when the palace of
justice was built. He was called the "schieve" architect, not because
his buildings are crooked, but because "ne schieve" means "bad person"
in Brussels. Victor Hugo called the courthouse the great inkwell. The
palace was built on an inclined plane between upper and lower Brussels.
The difference is 20 meters. So there are entrance gates on different
levels. The total built-up area is 26,000 m2. There are 8 courtyards, 27
large and 245 small halls. A dome of 24,000 tons and 142 meters high
crowns the building. New techniques were used for that time, such as
combining metal and stone. In 1883 the cost of this project was 45
million Belgian francs. It was initially estimated at 12 million francs.
When you are in front of the building you will see a white steel
construction on the right. It is a lift that connects Brussels above and
below for free and quickly.
the social district of
Watermael-Boitsfort, a pleasant district in which the windows of the
houses are painted according to colour, the inhabitants must always
respect this colour.
European Parliament, Wiertzstraat 60, Brussels
(By train: Brussels-Luxembourg stop on line S5 from Mechelen).
09:00-18:00. The grounds of the European Parliament (and other European
institutions) can be visited free of charge. You can view the room in
which the more than 700 members of parliament meet (the Hemisphere) from
the public gallery, there is a museum about the history of Europe, and
in the Parliamentarium you will find interactive information and films
about the current activities of the parliament. Count on half a day to
see everything. Free.
The Horta architecture:
Hotel van
Eetvelde, Palmerstonlaan 4. UNESCO World Heritage.
The Comics Museum
Socialist house, unfortunately you can't visit this anymore, it has been
demolished, it is still worth mentioning because this was one of the
most beautiful buildings in Brussels.
Central Station
By plane
Brussels Airport (located in Zaventem, IATA code BRU)
is located 12 km northeast of the center of Brussels. Both scheduled
flights and charters depart from here. Brussels Airport is a modern
airport and the main airport for Belgium. The Belgian airline
Brussels Airlines has its home port here. From the airport you can
reach Brussels Central station within 20 minutes by train (Airport
Express), located in the heart of Brussels and within walking
distance of the Grand Place. Another possibility is to go by taxi,
there are always a number of taxis waiting for you. There is also a
bus connection from the bus company STIB from the airport to Place
Schuman and Luxembourg in the European quarter.
Brussels South
Charleroi Airport (IATA code CRL) is located 60 km south of
Brussels. Several low-cost airlines operate from Brussels South
Charleroi Airport, of which Ryanair is the most important. You can
buy a combined ticket (train+bus) for €11.30 one way to any Brussels
train station. It takes just over an hour from Charleroi-Sud train
station to Brussels-Central. You can also opt for shuttle buses that
run to Brussels South (€13.00 one way/€22.00 return).
Antwerp
airport, IATA code ANR, has a good train connection with Brussels.
This is more of a small airport for business travelers.
By
train
The main stations of Brussels are Brussels-South
(Bruxelles-Midi) (mainly for international trains and actually the
main station of Brussels), Brussels-Central (Bruxelles-Central) and
Brussels-North (Bruxelles-Nord). There are several trains per hour
on the South-Central-North axis that always stop at these three
stations, except for certain international trains that only stop at
Brussels-South. Note: many people sometimes confuse Bruxelles-Midi
and Brussels-Central because they think that Bruxelles-Midi is in
the middle and then miss their appointment that is waiting in
Brussels-Central. If you want to be on the Grand Place, you have to
get off at Brussels Central station. As is generally the case near
large stations, it can be less safe. There are also the stations of
Schaerbeek, Brussels-Luxembourg (the European district, right below
the buildings of the European Union), Brussels-Schuman, Etterbeek,
Vorst-East, Vorst-Zuid, Brussels-West, Bordet, Jette, Bockstael ,
Brussels Congress and Brussels Chapel Church.
The
Brussels-Central station was designed by the famous architect Victor
Horta. The tunnel of Brussels-Central is the weak point of the
timetable in Belgium, all trains of the North-South connection have
to go underground here and only 6 tracks are available. If a delay
occurs here, this will escalate to train traffic throughout Belgium.
To solve this problem, the regional express network will be built in
the future. Brussels Central has been largely renovated since 2009.
By car
Five motorways go to Brussels : the A12, the E19, the
E40, the E411 and the E429. Via the E19 in a northerly direction you
can reach Antwerp and if you drive further through Breda and
Rotterdam, via the E19 in a southwesterly direction you can reach
Bergen, Charleroi and Paris. The E40 runs to Ghent, Bruges and
Ostend in a northwesterly direction and to Leuven and Liège in an
eastern direction. The E429 runs southwest to Lille. The ring R0
runs around Brussels and has many entrances and exits. Please note
that the ring road does not completely enclose Brussels because the
Sonian Forest is located in the south. The E411 takes you to Namur
and Luxembourg, which is the road to the Ardennes. The A12 runs
parallel to the E19 and you can hardly call it a motorway, it is a
dangerous road that is a motorway for a few kilometers and then
becomes a normal motorway with very strange exits without a sorting
lane. Due to the central location of Brussels, you can reach any
place in Belgium within an hour and a half.
Attention: the
entire Brussels Region is a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) where specific
rules are in force to combat air pollution. Whether or not you can
enter the Region with your car depends on a number of criteria that
you can check on the Brussels LEZ website. As a rule, vehicles older
than 10 years and diesel vehicles are prohibited. Even if your car
is allowed to enter Brussels, you must register it online for free.
Driving around with an unregistered vehicle risks a fine of 150
euros. This also applies to vehicles with a Dutch number plate!
By bus
The Eurolines bus holding company has its headquarters
in Brussels and practically all of Europe and part of Morocco can be
reached directly by bus from Brussels. The prices are competitive
with air travel. The buses stop at the back of Brussels-North
station (the main bus stop) and Brussels-South. Gulliver is a
collaborating partner of Eurolines.
Flixbus also has
connections to Brussels from several European cities, including
Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Berlin.
By boat
Brussels has a
port.
By STIB
STIB (Society for Intercommunal Transport in Brussels) or
in French: STIB (Société des Transports Intercommunaux de
Bruxelles): STIB has numerous bus and tram lines as well as four
metro lines: 1, 2, 5 and 6.
By train
Try not to focus
solely on the STIB network for your journeys in Brussels. The NMBS
(National Company of the Belgian Railways) has numerous stops on the
Brussels territory. You can also validate your STIB ticket when you
use the train in the Brussels region. You therefore do not
necessarily have to buy an SNCB ticket for your journeys within
Brussels. Please note that you get off at a station located on the
territory of the Brussels region. If you travel to Vilvoorde or
Halle, you do need to buy an NMBS ticket. This can be purchased at
the counter or electronic distributors. If you are in a smaller
station without a ticket office (or a large station where the ticket
office is closed), you must contact the train conductor on the train
to purchase a ticket, please note that a surcharge of €7 will be
charged on board the train. 00 on top of the ticket price. It is
therefore best to buy your ticket before you board, at the counters.
By bike
Brussels is not entirely bicycle-friendly, there are
few bicycle markings in the city. Recently, the city council has
been making more efforts to stimulate bicycle use by constructing
additional bicycle infrastructure. In Brussels (as in the rest of
Belgium) people often work with bicycle lanes instead of
fully-fledged cycle paths. Moreover, there are many hills in
Brussels. It is not recommended to travel by bicycle in certain
parts of the city, especially between heavy car traffic. For
example, you can cycle very well in the Zoniënwoud or the pedestrian
zone in the center.
City bikes are also available in the
Brussels region, namely Villo!, a cheap and convenient system to
move around smoothly. A ticket for 1 day costs €1.50 and a ticket
for 7 days costs €7.00. If you have a ticket, the first half hour of
cycling is free, after that you pay €0.50 for the next half hour.
You do need a credit card to purchase your ticket. In the high-lying
stations it is sometimes difficult to find a bicycle, in the
lower-lying stations it is sometimes difficult to get rid of it.
This can partly be explained by the fact that the bicycles are
somewhat heavier than the city bicycles in, for example, London or
Paris.
On foot
Visiting Brussels is very easy on foot. The
center of the city (the pentagon) can be reached on foot in just 25
minutes. Since June 2015, Brussels has a 50-hectare pedestrian
center, the second largest in Europe after Venice.
The area within which the city rights applied was called the Kuip van
Brussel. It then flourished under the Duchy of Brabant and then strongly
rivaled Leuven. Both cities were alternately the capital of the Duchy.
Brussels more or less became the capital of the Habsburg Netherlands and
later the Southern Netherlands. Towards the end of the Austrian
Netherlands it gained the upper hand over Leuven. Several noble families
settled there, as did (parts of) the government.
Brussels
consolidated its capital function for the first time under the French
regime. During the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, it was the seat of
parliament, together with The Hague. In the Belgian Revolution of 1830,
Brussels was the center of the rebels, where the Provisional Government
established itself.
The new Belgian state significantly accelerated the development of
Brussels. Before 1830, Brussels was a Brabant, Dutch-speaking city.
After independence, it experienced a strong influx of Frenchmen (refugee
revolutionaries and others), and of Walloon officials, whom the young
Belgian regime attracted from the Walloon provinces to man its national
administration. That regime was dominated by the higher bourgeoisie and
the nobility. Only these groups then enjoyed voting rights. They wanted
to develop the national institutions only in their own language, French.
As a result, Dutch was radically banned from all institutions and from
the administration.
This linguistic discrimination coincided with
severe social and political discrimination against the workers and the
Flemish Dutch-speaking bourgeoisie. In the nineteenth century, Brussels
also experienced strong industrial development. Due to this pressure
from the government and the settlement of Walloons and French, the
Frenchification of the population, the verbeulemanization, increased.
However, it was not until the middle of the twentieth century that
French speakers formed the majority in Brussels.
Along with this
evolution, the metropolitan area also grew. At the beginning of the 19th
century, there were only six municipalities around the capital. As
urbanization and Frenchification progressed, surrounding municipalities
were annexed. This happened during ten-yearly language censuses. As soon
as the number of francophones and bilinguals exceeded certain limits,
the municipality concerned was added to the metropolitan area.
Since the 1960s, Brussels became the de facto capital of the European
Community, later of the European Union. Urban planning interventions,
such as the demolition of existing buildings, sometimes entire
districts, were permitted without aesthetic aspects being heavily
weighted. Art Deco houses disappeared, unless they were already
protected. This architectural cacophony of old and new gave rise to the
term Brusselsization.
Brussels acquired its own political institutions only quite late,
first with a Brussels Agglomeration Council, and then, ten years after
the Flemish and Walloon regions (in 1989), with its own capital regional
institutions: the Brussels-Capital Parliament and the Brussels-Capital
Government. In addition, a legal regulation was developed to protect the
Flemish minority in Brussels (according to the most optimistic estimates
about 20% of the Brussels population, but less if one takes the election
results of the Dutch-speaking parties as a benchmark). For example, the
Brussels regional government (as well as the federal one) has a parity
composition, which means that there are an equal number of
Dutch-speaking and French-speaking ministers (with the exception of the
Prime Minister). Later, the Flemings also received a guaranteed number
of seats in the Brussels-Capital Council, because otherwise their number
of seats threatened to fall below a critical threshold.
In
addition, the Flemish and French Communities also exercise powers in the
Brussels Region; these are the typical community powers, also referred
to as 'personal matters' (eg culture). For the Flemish Community, these
powers rest with the Flemish Community Commission (VGC), for the French
Community with the COCOF. There is a Joint Community Commission for a
limited number of matters.
The current institutional arrangement
for the Brussels-Capital Region is the result of several rounds of state
reforms, with the French speakers trying to develop Brussels into a
fully-fledged region ('une région-à-part entière'), while the Flemish
want to see Brussels more as a lower, intermediate form of government –
a highly upgraded agglomeration cum province or even city (with a merger
of the 19 municipalities). The Brussels Region has a slightly different
legal status than the Flemish and Walloon regions.
Description
In terms of territory, the current Brussels-Capital
Region coincides with the bilingual region of Brussels-Capital and the
arrondissement of Brussels-Capital, which, in addition to Brussels,
includes 18 other municipalities that grew urbanistically with the core
city in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Indeed, unlike most
other large agglomerations in Belgium (such as Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi
and Liège), the Brussels agglomeration was not involved in the merger
operation of municipalities in 1977, so that the number of
municipalities remained unchanged. In the past (1922) only the
municipalities of Laeken, Haren and Neder-over-Heembeek were
incorporated by the municipality of Brussels.
Soil & relief
The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the Brabantse Loam region on
the northeast side of central Belgium at an altitude that varies from
9.40 meters in the valley of the almost completely covered Senne, which
cuts through the region from south to north, to 148 meters in the
Zoniënwoud on the southeast side. In addition to the Zenne, its
tributaries the Maalbeek and the Woluwe in the east of the region also
cause considerable differences in height. Forests and parks together
account for about 20% of the total area of the region, they are mainly
concentrated in the southeast of the region (Zoniënwoud, Ter
Kamerenbos). In the west (including Anderlecht) there is a limited area
of pasture and arable land. Undeveloped lands (including forests, parks
and farmland) together account for one third of the territory.
When Belgium became independent in 1830, the municipalities that are
now part of the Brussels-Capital Region had about 135,000 inhabitants,
of which Brussels itself, with about 95,000 inhabitants, made up about
70% of the total. The other municipalities were then still villages,
only a few of which had more than 3,000 inhabitants, which had not yet
grown into the city. In 1900 the agglomeration already had 626,075
inhabitants and around 1960 the milestone of 1,000,000 inhabitants was
reached. The share of Brussels in the total was then only 17%. In the
19th century, it was mainly the municipalities directly adjacent to
Brussels that grew spectacularly (Anderlecht, Molenbeek, Schaarbeek,
Saint-Gilles, Ixelles, Saint-Josse), in the In the 20th century, the
growth mainly occurred in the municipalities of the outer periphery.
In 1990, just after the creation of the region in 1989, the
agglomeration had a population of 991,355, while in 1970 there were
still 1,075,136. Until 2000, this number would continue to fall to
959,318, roughly equal to the 1947 level (955,929). In the first decade
of the 21st century, the trend reversed to reach 1,200,000 in 2019. This
strong growth is mainly concentrated in the municipalities of
Anderlecht, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Schaarbeek, Ixelles,
Sint-Joost-ten-Node, Koekelberg, Laeken (Brussels II) and Sint-Gillis,
and is the result of a high natural balance (high birth rate and low
death rate, mainly due to the large proportion of the young immigrant
population), as well as strong migration from abroad. Despite this
growth, some of these municipalities (Brussels, Ixelles, Saint-Gilles,
Etterbeek and Saint-Josse) still have fewer inhabitants than at their
peak. The other municipalities have a lower growth rate, which is closer
to the national average. However, the phenomenon of urban escape, which
originated in the second half of the 20th century, still occurs, because
the internal migration balance remains negative year after year (more
inhabitants leave the region for Flanders or Wallonia than vice versa).
At the end of 2008, some 68% of the inhabitants of the
Brussels-Capital Region were of foreign origin. About 35% of the
inhabitants of Brussels are of non-European origin. The percentage of
Brussels residents of European origin and of non-foreign origin is both
32%. Refugees make up the remaining 1%. It should be noted that
residents of mixed origin (both Belgian and foreign) are counted as
being of foreign origin.
According to a 2006 report by the
Brussels Observatory for Health and Welfare, 46.3% of the inhabitants of
the Brussels-Capital Region are of foreign origin (ie not born in
Belgium). 26.8% of the inhabitants of Brussels do not have Belgian
nationality (are immigrants). In some areas of the region, it mainly
concerns migrant workers. In other districts, non-Belgians are mainly
employees of international organizations or foreign students.
The Brussels-Capital Region has an average population density of more than 7,400 inhabitants per km², which is about 20 times higher than the national average. However, there are large differences in population density between a number of municipalities in the region. The centrally located municipalities and also the historic city center of Brussels, the so-called pentagon, have a much higher density than the municipalities of the second crown, which urbanized later. For the municipalities of the southeastern edge (especially Watermael-Bosvoorde, but also Uccle, Auderghem and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre), this can partly be explained by the fact that a large part of their surface is taken up by the uninhabited Sonian Forest, and on the other hand because they also have a free have a large residential zone with detached buildings. For the city of Brussels, including the absorbed municipalities of Laeken, Haren and Neder-Over-Heembeek, the explanation lies mainly in the presence of the large royal domain and the port zone, where there is hardly any habitation. Although Sint-Joost-ten-Noode is the most densely populated municipality with almost 24,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, the highest concentration at district level can be found in the Bosnia quarter of Saint-Gilles, where the density is 38,000 inhabitants per km². Both Saint-Josse and Saint-Gilles had an even higher density of about 25,000 inhabitants per km² in the middle of the 20th century (before the start of the urban flight).
The Local Civic Integration and Integration Monitor 2018 published by
the Flemish Community provides the following figures regarding the
diversity of the population for the 19 municipalities of the
Brussels-Capital Region.
Of the nearly 1.2 million inhabitants,
65% have Belgian nationality, 35% have another nationality. By
nationality, the French are most strongly represented in 10 of the 19
municipalities and the Romanians in 6 municipalities. Bulgarians,
Moroccans and Indians each come first in 1 municipality (Schaarbeek,
Molenbeek and Evere, respectively). In Ixelles, Sint-Gillis and
Etterbeek, almost 50% of the inhabitants each have a nationality other
than Belgian, Watermael-Boitsfort and Sint-Agatha-Berchem are the only
municipalities where just over 80% of the inhabitants have the Belgian
nationality .
At the end of 2017, 71.8% of the inhabitants of the
Brussels-Capital Region were of foreign origin (born abroad themselves
or at least one of the parents was born abroad). 28.3% of all
inhabitants have roots in one of the countries of the European Union,
43.5% have ties with countries outside the EU, 24.6% come from the
Maghreb or Turkey, which, thus far, are the main immigration regions.
Sint-Joost-Ten-Node is the only municipality with more than 90%
inhabitants of foreign origin, Watermael-Boitsfort as the only
municipality with less than 50%. Molenbeek has the largest share (65%)
of residents from non-EU countries, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre the least with
17%.
The region is heterogeneous: there are significant differences in
population density and average wealth between the different
municipalities. This is reflected in a different view of the districts
and municipalities.
Centrally, there is the city of Brussels,
with a very great attraction to work and experience culture, with a
great variety in socio-economic and spatial terms. Around the canal
zone, there are the municipalities of Vorst, Anderlecht, Molenbeek and
Schaarbeek, in industrial reconversion, with a strongly increasing,
mostly foreign population and a lower than average income. In the
municipalities in the "first belt" (Etterbeek, Ixelles, Saint-Gilles and
Saint-Josse-Ten-Node) there is also a lower income than average, a high
population density, especially singles. There are many office buildings.
In addition, there are residential communities in both the northwest
and southeast. In the northwest, these are Ganshore, Evere, Koekelberg,
Jette and Sint-Agatha-Berchem, municipalities with increasing population
numbers, especially families, and slightly wealthier than average. In
the southeast, these are the two Woluwes, Auderghem, Uccle and
Watermael-Boitsfort. These municipalities are relatively richer, with a
stagnant and aging population.
The region has Dutch and French as official languages. Almost all
official (administration, police, court, street signs, ...),
semi-official businesses and institutions (STIB, Bpost) and various
private entities (such as large retail chains) are bilingual. Most other
designations can also be found in the two languages. Nevertheless, the
language of communication on the street is mostly French, in accordance
with the distribution of the population: 80 to 90 percent use French as
the language of communication, 20 to 10 percent Dutch, depending on the
source and the standards used.
However, such percentages do not
always give a clear picture. Many residents who state French as their
first language also speak Dutch, whether or not at native level. These
can be (mostly older) residents who speak Dutch, French and the Brussels
dialect, but also people who were brought up in French and went to a
Dutch-language school. Around 2010, a trend can be discerned for
French-speaking parents to send their children to a Dutch-speaking
school, because that would give them more opportunities, and because
French-language education in Brussels has a reputation for being of
inferior quality. Many French-speaking Brussels residents speak Dutch
for commercial reasons: after all, 200,000 to 300,000 Flemish or other
Dutch-speaking commuters work in the city. Finally, it should be noted
that a large proportion of the inhabitants have another language at home
(including Arabic, Turkish, English, Portuguese, Italian, Polish,
Romanian, Bulgarian and various African languages), whereby French
and/or Dutch are essentially are second or third languages for these
inhabitants.
The municipal council of each of the 19
municipalities of the region usually has one (or exceptionally sometimes
several) Dutch-speaking alderman(s), who is sometimes competent for all
Dutch-speaking matters. Municipal officials who interact with the public
(such as counter clerks) should be bilingual. In practice, official
reports confirm that large numbers of monolingual (in practice mainly
French-speaking) civil servants are employed. Most mayors have a good
knowledge of both languages.
Occasionally there are incidents
between French speakers and Dutch speakers. In the 1960s and 1970s, for
example, there was the Schaerbeek mayor Roger Nols, who took various
measures to virtually bully Dutch speakers away. The best example of
this is the counter issue: Roger Nols ensured that there was only one
counter for Dutch speakers in the town hall, although a Dutch speaker
should be able to go to any counter in Dutch. Due to the number of
inhabitants of Schaarbeek, the highest after that of Brussels-City,
there was a need for more counters for Dutch speakers. Within Brussels,
these tensions seem to be easing. Rather, the language problems moved to
the Vlaamse Rand around Brussels, where many French-speaking inhabitants
of Brussels have settled. In some municipalities they are even a large
majority, which is in contrast to the fact that those municipalities
belong to Flanders and are therefore formally Dutch-speaking.
Of
all commercial companies with their registered office in Brussels, 35
percent use Dutch as an internal working language and as a communication
language with the authorities. One-third of all job offers require
bilingualism, one-fifth also requires knowledge of English. Multilingual
jobs are usually filled by Flemings. Of all advertising campaigns in
Brussels, about 41.4 percent are bilingual French-Dutch, one third
monolingual French, one tenth bilingual French-English and 7.2 percent
trilingual. In 2006, 230,000 commuters came from the Flemish Region (65%
of the total) during the day, considerably more than the 126,500
commuters from Wallonia (35%). These numbers remained the same in 2018.
The original language of Brussels, a local variant of Brabantish, is
one of the forerunners of contemporary Dutch. The current Standard Dutch
has developed over the centuries from various dialects, in which Brabant
and Dutch have played a leading role. Within the Brussels-Capital
Region, French and Dutch are official languages, but most people
(residents, commuters, foreigners, and the casual visitor) use French as
a language of address.
Brussels is one of the Brabant dialects of
Dutch. Before the French occupations and Belgian independence, French
was only used by the higher nobility and their domestic servants, and in
relations with neighboring French-speaking regions such as the region
around Nivelles, Hainaut and Namur. During the French occupations,
French was harshly imposed as the language of administration. At the
time of Belgian independence, the local population of Brussels was still
more than 90% Dutch-speaking. The number of French speakers increased
during the 19th century due to the settlement of French refugees and the
recruitment of Walloon officials for the central administration of the
new state. After all, the new state opted for the language of a very
limited group of voters, the exclusively French-speaking nobility,
higher bourgeoisie and higher clergy.
In the last decades of the
twentieth century, the Brussels-Capital Region has developed from a
bilingual to a multilingual area, thanks to the settlement of European
civil servants and their families, foreign workers from the
Mediterranean, immigrants from the former Belgian colony of the Congo,
refugees from all parts of the world and recently many Central and
Eastern Europeans. English is increasingly being used as a language of
communication and other languages are also gaining importance,
especially as a home language and means of communication within
population groups, such as Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Berber, Italian,
etc.
After the last language census in 1947, in which 74.2%
stated French and 25.5% Dutch as the most spoken language, no official
statistics on language use in Brussels have been kept. Since 2000,
periodic surveys of language relations have been carried out by the
Brussels Information, Documentation and Research Center (BRIO), a
scientific research institute. The development of the home language in
Brussels shows that in recent years the share of monolingual (French)
families has fallen sharply and the share of bilingual families has
increased. It is remarkable that between 2000 and 2012 the share of
families where only or partly French is spoken decreased slightly (from
82% to 78%), while the share of families where only or partly Dutch is
spoken rose sharply (from 14% to 22% ). This is probably partly due to
the popularity of Dutch-language education in Brussels.
Since 1989, the inhabitants of Brussels have been able to elect their
own regional representatives: the Brussels-Capital Parliament. This
council appoints the government of the Brussels-Capital Region. This
government must have a parliamentary majority in both language groups
and, by analogy with the federal government, must also have an equal
number of ministers from each language group (in practice two each), led
by a prime minister to whom this language parity does not apply. In
addition, a few secretaries of state, subordinate to one of the
ministers, can also be added to the government, but the language parity
does not apply to them either. The respective councils for the Flemish
and French-speaking community are also composed from the council (VGC
and COCOF).
Important administrative tasks are entrusted to
institutions of the two communities in Brussels, being the Flemish
Community Commission (VGC) and the Commission Communautaire Française
(COCOF), as well as a small Joint Community Commission (GGC). VGC and
COCOF each have their own elected council and their own board. The
community councils consist of the elected members of their own community
in the Brussels parliament.
As for all elections in Belgium, voting for the Brussels-Capital
Parliament is also compulsory. In 1989, the number of voters was 582,947
representing 60.45% of the population. In 2014, the number of voters
remained almost unchanged (584,310), while the population has now
increased by twenty percent. Because these new inhabitants are almost
exclusively non-Belgians who do not have the right to vote, the
voter/inhabitant ratio has fallen to 50.22%, which is significantly
lower than is the case at national level and in the other regions. In
addition, high absenteeism (16.5% in 2014) is also characteristic of the
Brussels region.
Originally, the parliament had 75 members and
there were no fixed number of seats determined per language group. With
the Lambermont Agreement of 2001, the number of seats was increased to
89 and a fixed number of seats was provided for each language group, 72
for the French-speaking lists and 17 for the Dutch-speaking lists. This
80%-20% ratio does not reflect the actual voting ratio between the two
language groups. Since 1989, the share of votes for the NL-language
lists fell from 15.01% to 11.54% in 2014, while on the FR-language side
it rose from 84.99% to 88.46%. It should be noted here that votes for
NL-language lists cannot necessarily come exclusively from NL-language
voters, conversely this also applies to votes on FR-language lists. It
is not possible to determine how large this phenomenon of cross-language
voting is, but it is true that the Vlaams Belang (formerly Vlaams Blok)
has deliberately conducted a bilingual campaign a number of times with
the intention of also conquering FR-language votes, which for 1999 and
2004 would explain the higher number of votes for NL-language lists.
Due to the reserved number of seats per language group, bilingual
lists are not possible for these elections. Dutch-speakers who apply for
a French-speaking list are considered to be French-speaking and vice
versa. There is also an electoral threshold of 5% for these elections,
although in this case this applies per language group and is not
calculated on the whole of the votes cast.
A special feature is
that parties within the same language group can enter into a list
connection (apparenting) with each other. The technique of apparition,
which in Belgium only exists in provincial elections and previously in
federal elections, but between lists of the same party in different
electoral districts, is therefore used here for lists of different
parties in the same electoral district. The aim of this was to prevent
the Vlaams Blok from obtaining a majority of the seats because smaller
parties, such as N-VA, spirit, Agalev or Vivant at the time, would not
reach the electoral threshold. In this way, in 2014 the PTB*PVDA-GO!
winning four seats although falling below the electoral threshold at
3.86%. After all, the party entered into a list connection with the
parties Pro Brussels, Belgian Union-Union Belge and the Pirate Party. In
sum, the four parties together obtained more than 5%, and seats were
thus allocated to them; these eventually all ended up with the PVDA. The
parties CD&V, sp.a, N-VA, Open Vld, Groen and Vlaams Belang did not
enter into a list connection in these elections.