Brussels; the capital city of Belgium is one of the liveliest cosmopolitan city of the country and in the world also. Brussels Belgium is the home of key EU (European Union) institutions like commission, parliament and the council. Thus, it is also known as the de facto capital of the EU. The city also hosts many other pan European organizations including NATO.
There are nineteen boroughs of Brussels. Some of them are Bruxells/Brussel, Ixelles-Elsene, Marolles/Marollen, Saint-Gilles/Sint-Gillis, St-Josse/Sint-Joost, Schaerbeek/Schaarbeek, Jette, Uccle/Ukkel and so on. There are two official language of the city French and Dutch. Hence, you can see two names of the city. English is also widely understood here. The most popular tourist spots in the city are Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven. Some famous landmarks of the city are Grand Place-Grote Markt, Manneken Pis, Parc Du Cinquantenaire-Jubelpark, Rue des Bouchers-Beenhouwersstraat and The Bourse. Museums and galleries in Brussels are also globally famous such as Musée Belvue, Natural Sciences Museum of Belgium, Horta Museum, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Maison de la Bande Dessinée, Musée du Cinéma-Filmmuseum, AUTOWORLD and so on.
Mussels (moules), fries (frites) and chocolate of Brussels are the prominent dishes of the city. Some other famous dishes are anguilles au vert / paling in't groen (river eels in green sauce), meat balls in tomato sauce, stoemp (mashed vegetables and potatoes) and turbot waterzooi (turbot fish in cream and egg sauce). There are several universities in the Brussels which assures good education system in the city. Two main universities are the Université Libre de Bruxelles, a French-speaking university and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a Dutch-speaking university.
The Brussels economy is purely service oriented due to the presence of regional headquarters of multinationals, by European institutions and administrations. It also has few notable craft industries like Cantillon Brewery.
Historically, the city was grown from 10th century fortress town. Officially, it was situated around 979 during the reign of Duke Charles. Geographically, it was located on an important trade route between Bruges, Ghent and Cologne and hence it grew significantly. The set of two walls constructed during 13th century. Its evidence still can be seen because of the small ring, a series of roadways in downtown Brussels bounding the historic city centre. |
