Belgium and Luxembourg (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG REGION BY REGION 53

Café life in the Lower Town, beneath a comic-strip mural and the spire of the Hôtel de Ville

The origin of Brussels

lies in the Frankish
settlement known as

Bruocsella (Village in
the Marshes) and a castle

built in AD 977. From these
beginnings, it became a mas-

sively fortified power base for the
ruling dukes of Brabant and Burgundy

and evolved into a sophisticated city.
From the 12th century onwards,

commerce was the engine of growth.
The trading centre around the Grand

Place was in the Lower Town. In
contrast, the palaces of the dukes

and nobles stood aloof on the crest
of a hill in the Upper Town – a divi-

sion between the rulers and the ruled
that is still detectable in the architec-

ture today. Because French was the
language of the elite classes, it

became that of the city, which is a
French-speaking bubble surrounded

by the Dutch-speaking province of
Vlaams-Brabant. Officially, if not in

practice, Brussels is a bilingual city

and all the street names are in

both French and Dutch. The

city remained the capital as

the Spanish Netherlands

gave way to the Neo-

Classical era of the Austrian

Netherlands. During the

19th century, it underwent

rapid expansion as a result

of which the elegant Quartier

Léopold developed in the Upper

Town. Today, this zone of orderly

avenues and green spaces is home to

institutions of the EU. Punctuated with

modern buildings, it busies itself

with the governmental bureaucracy

so readily attached to Brussels’s name.

With an urban area of 160 sq km

(60 sq miles) and a population of one

million, Brussels juggles its great his-

torical legacy and its role in the mod-

ern world by offering the best of both

heritage and urban prosperity. And

true to a city that has the Manneken-

Pis as its mascot, a ripple of good

cheer is never far from the surface.

BRUSSELS

T

he capital of Belgium, and effectively the capital of Europe,

Brussels has always been a hub of trade and politics. Yet, despite

its international prominence, the city retains an intimate,

human scale, with a web of medieval streets centring upon the superb

Grand Place. Brussels’s glorious architecture and gilded spires rise

over high-fashion boutiques and quaint, time-warped taverns and cafés.

The Palais Royal, seat of the royal family in Brussels and centrepiece of the Upper Town