Brussels

Etymology

The name Brussels comes from the old Dutch_language|Dutch ''Bruocsella'', ''Brucsella'' or ''Broekzele'', which means "marsh (''bruoc'', ''bruc'' or ''broek'') home (''sella'' or ''zele'')" or "home 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. The names of all other municipalities in the Brussels-Capital Region are also of Dutch_language|Dutch origin, except for Evere, which is of Celtic languages|Celtic origin.

History

In 977, the Germany|German emperor Otto II gave Lower Lorraine, the empire's western frontier to Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine|Charles, the banished son of King Louis IV of France. Mention was already made of Brussels at the time. However, the founding of Brussels is usually known to happen when a small castle was built by Charles around 979 on an island (called Saint-Gery island) encompassed by the Senne river. At the end of the tenth century, with the death of Charles, Lower Lorraine was taken over by Lambert I of Leuven. Under Lambert II of Leuven, a new castrum and the first city walls were built. The small town became in the 12th century an important stop on the commercial road from Bruges to Cologne; the Counts of Leuven changed their name to Duke of Brabant|Dukes of Brabant at about this time also. From 1357 to 1379, a new city enclosure was constructed as the former one was already proving to be too small: it is now known as the inner ring or pentagon. In the 15th century, by means of the wedding of heiress Margaret III of Flanders with Philip II, Duke of Burgundy|Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a new Duke of Brabant emerged from the House of Valois Dynasty|Valois (namely Antoine, Duke of Brabant|Antoine, their son), with another line of descent from the Habsburgs (Maximilian of Austria, later Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, was Philip's father). In 1695 Brussels was attacked by King Louis XIV of France: the battle was responsible for the flattening of the city's heart, the Grand Place, and the razing of what was left: more than 4000 houses, including the buildings of the Grand Place, were all destroyed, except for the famous city hall, the Hôtel de Ville, which miraculously survived). In 1830, the Belgian revolution took place in Brussels after a presentation of Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber|Auber's opera ''La Muette de Portici'' at La Monnaie theatre. On July 21, 1831, Léopold I of Belgium|Léopold I, the first King of the Belgians, ascended the throne, undertaking the destruction of the city walls and the construction of many buildings. Under Léopold II of Belgium|Léopold II, the city underwent many more changes: the Senne was culverted (as it brought diseases), theNorth-South Junction was built, and the Tervuren Avenue was laid out. From May 10, 1940, Brussels was bombed by the German army. A lot of damage was done with bombs mainly in 1943-1944. The Heysel Stadium disaster took place in Brussels on May 29, 1985. The Brussels Capital Region was founded on June 18, 1989.

Linguistic situation

The original languages of the Brussels area are Brabantic dialects of Dutch. A curiosity is "Marollien", a Brussels dialect heavily influenced by Walloon which was spoken in a central section of the city. Both Dutch and French have been in use for most of the city's history as official languages and were used by the upper classes. During the 19th and the 20th century, as literacy progressed, dialects started to lose ground to standardized languages. In Brussels, most of the population adopted French rather than Dutch as its language of culture, since at the time, it was more prestigious and consequently considered more useful. Today, the 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 its population. However, according to a 2001 study by Rudi Janssens, a sociolinguist at the VUB, 8,5% of the Brussels population are native Dutch-speakers and 10,20% speak both Dutch and French at home. The rest of the population are French-speaking; allophones overwhelmingly use French when communicating with people who do not belong to their own language group. It should be noted that the Brussels periphery, which is officially part of Dutch-speaking Flanders, has an important French-speaking population. In most of the municipalities immediately bordering the Brussels Capital Region, French-speakers form a large majority. Their linguistic rights and/or the expansion of the Brussels Capital Region are the subject of much heated debate.

Universities

Brussels has several university|universities, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the Facultés Universitaires Saint Louis (FUSL) and the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (KUB). 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.

Transport

Brussels is served by Brussels Airport|Brussels National Airport, located in the municipality of Zaventem, and by Charleroi Brussels South|Brussels South Airport, located near Charleroi, some 80km from Brussels. Brussels' major train stations link the city to the United Kingdom by Eurostar, and to major European cities by high speed rail links (such as the Thalys). The Brussels metro dates back to 1976 (but underground lines known as ''premetro'' have been serviced by tramways since 1968). A comprehensive bus and Brussels trams|tram network also covers the city. Brussels also has its own port on the Willebroek canal located in the city's northwest. There are four companies managing public transport inside Brussels:

STIB/MIVB (metro, bus, tram)

SNCB/NMBS (train)

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 an RER rail network around Brussels.

Railway stations

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

Brussels North (Dutch: ''Brussel-Noord'', French: ''Gare du Nord'')

Brussels Central (Dutch: ''Brussel-Centraal'', French: ''Gare Centrale'')

Brussels South (Dutch: ''Brussel-Zuid'', French: ''Gare du Midi'' or ''Bruxelles-Midi'') (the Eurostar, Thalys, TGV and InterCity Express|ICE international terminal) Two more stations serve the EU district in Brussels. Trains towards Namur (city)|Namur and Luxembourg call at:

Brussels Luxembourg

Brussels Schuman The last two stations located in the municipality 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 :

Schaarbeek (French: Schaerbeek)

Etterbeek

Uccle Stalle (Dutch: ''Ukkel Stalle'')

Uccle Calevoet (Dutch: ''Ukkel Kalevoet'')

Jette

Merode

Delta

Sint-Job (French: ''Saint-Job'')

Vorst Oost (French: ''Forest Est'')

Vorst Zuid (French: ''Forest Midi'')

Sint-Agatha-Berchem (French: ''Berchem Sainte-Agathe'')

Saint-Gilles (Dutch: ''Sint-Gillis'')

Watermaal (French: ''Watermael'')

Bosvoorde (French: ''Boitsfort'')

Boondael (Dutch: ''Boondaal'')

Meiser

Road network

Brussels has an beltway|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'', no particular name in Dutch) is formed by a string of boulevards that curves round from Laeken to Uccle. Some ''premetro'' stations (see Brussels metro) were built on that route. A little further out, a stretch numbered R22 leads from Zaventem to St-Job.

Conferences and world fairs

Brussels hosted the third ''Congrès international d'architecture moderne'' in 1930. Two world fairs took place in Brussels, the ''1935 world fair|Exposition universelle et internationale'' (1935) and the Expo '58 in 1958. The Atomium, a 103 metre representation of an iron crystal was built for the Expo '58, and is still there. Throughout 2003, Brussels celebrated native son Jacques Brel on the 25th anniversary of his death.

See also

Places of interest

Atomium

''La Bourse'' (Dutch: ''De Beurs'')

''Grand-Place'' (Dutch: ''Grote Markt'')

Heysel (Dutch: ''Heizel'')

Jeanneke Pis

Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Belgium|Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg

The Jubilee Arch (French: ''Les Arcades du Cinquantenaire'', Dutch: ''Triomfboog'')

Manneken Pis

''La Monnaie'' (Dutch: ''De Munt'')

Saint Michael and Saint Gudula Cathedral

The Floral Carpet (not permanent)

Tour et Taxis

Palais Stoclet (Dutch: Stoclethuis)

Maison Horta (Dutch: Hortahuis)

Notable parks

''Parc de Bruxelles (Brussels)|Parc de Bruxelles'' (Dutch: ''Warandepark''), wrongly called ''Parc Royal'' (Dutch: ''Koninklijk Park'')

''Bois de la Cambre'' (Dutch: ''Ter Kamerenbos'')

''Cinquantenaire'' (Dutch: ''Jubelpark'')

''Parc de Laeken'' (Dutch: ''Park van Laken'')

''Parc de Woluwe'' (Dutch: ''Park van Woluwe'')

''Parc Josaphat''

''Parc Roi Baudouin''

''Kauberg''

''Jardin botanique''

''Parc Léopold''

''Jardins du Maelbeek''

''Parc Duden''

''Parc Astrid''

Notable people from Brussels

See also: Notable people from Brussels

Pierre Alechinsky, artist

Plastic Bertrand, musician

Jacques Brel, musician

Michel De Ghelderode, dramatist

Marc Didden, film director

Gudula|Saint Gudulae of Brussels and Eibingen, Saint of the city and national saint of Belgium

Audrey Hepburn, actress

Hergé, Franco-Belgian comics|comics writer

Victor Horta, Art Nouveau architect

Jacky Ickx, racing driver

Paul-Emile Janson, politician, former Prime Minister of Belgium

René Magritte, painter

Amélie Nothomb, writer

Peyo (Pierre Culliford), illustrator and creator of the Smurfs

François Schuiten, Franco-Belgian comics|comics artist

Paul-Henri Spaak, politician, several times Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister of Belgium, former Secretary General of the NATO

Toots Thielemans, jazz musician

Jean-Claude Van Damme, actor; nickname: "The Muscles from Brussels"

Marguerite Yourcenar, writer and first female member of Academie Française

Sports clubs

R.S.C. Anderlecht, football (soccer)|football

F.C. Molenbeek Brussels Strombeek, football

R. Union Saint-Gilloise, football

R.B.B.C. Brussels, basketball

Concert halls

http://www.abconcerts.be

http://www.beursschouwburg.be

http://www.botanique.be

http://www.botanique.be

http://www.senghor.be

http://www.flagey.be

http://www.vorstnationaal.be

http://www.halles.be

http://vaartkapoen.vgc.be/

Museums

http://www.museedujouet.be''Brussels'(only available in French at the moment)

Royal Museums of Fine Arts

Palace of Fine Arts (Paleis voor Schone Kunsten - Palais de beaux-arts )

Film Museum

Musical Instrument Museum (MiM)

National Army Museum

National Museum for Arts and History

Comic Book Museum (Musée de la BD - Stripmuseum)

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Royal Museum for Central Africa (in Tervuren)

Other

List of Minister-Presidents of Brussels

Brussels sprout - the vegetable named after the city

Art Nouveau

List of metro stations of Brussels

Forest of Soignes

Memorial van Damme

http://20kmdebruxelles.be/20km/set_en.htm- every year there is a spectacular run with 25,000 runners running 20km

http://www.ommegang.be/

External links

http://www.bruxelles.irisnet.be/ official site

http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Brussels

http://www.brussels.org/ Useful addresses for tourists in Brussels.

http://www.500.be(French: ''Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Bruxelles'' or ''CCIB'', Dutch: ''Kamer voor Handel en Nijverheid van Brussel'' or ''KHNB'')

Transport

http://www.brusselsairport.be/ at Zaventem

http://www.charleroi-airport.com/BSCA/siteEN.nsf/.Accueil?Readform near Charleroi

http://www.planitram.be/Public transport in the Region of Brussels Capital, unofficial site (in English and French)

Maps

http://www.hot-maps.de/europe/belgium/brussels/homeen.html

http://www.ilotsacre.be/site/en/default_en.htm

Museums

http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/

Dialect

http://www.avhb.be/publicaties/publicaties.asp

http://www.cyberbruxelles.be/cyberbruxelles/ADIPB.html(Marollien)