Official Language:
Flemish
Secondary Language:
French and Dutch
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Currency:
EURO
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Population:
Approximately 980,000 people call Brussels home.
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Weather:
Climate and current weather information for Brussels: The climate of Brussels is somewhat cool. The summer months of July and August are generally in the 60°F/15°C and low 70°F/20°C. Spring and fall months are generally in the 60°F's with the remainder of the year very cool in the 40°F's 4°C Showers are common even in the summer.
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Brussels is more than a 1000 years old. Over the centuries, Brussels has been ruled by everyone from the Romans to the Spanish to the Germans, a colonial history that well prepared the city for its current occupiers-diplomats, lobbyists, and Euro-politicians who flock to the NATO and European Union headquarters here. International business has also invaded the city in the past three decades, resulting in blocks full of steel-and-glass office buildings, but these modern edifices are only a few steps from the cobbled streets, splendid cafés, and graceful Art Nouveau architecture that speak to the city's eventful past. Today the name Brussels stands for an agglomeration of 19 communes forming one of the three Regions of the federal Belgian state; the capital of the Kingdom of Belgium; the headquarters of the French and Flemish Communities. Brussels also has an important international vocation : as the European capital the city is home to the European Commission and to the Council of ministers of the European Union (EU). Brussels is the bilingual capital of Belgium. This means that both French and Dutch are the official languages of the city. Street names and traffic sings are always in these two languages. Furthermore, it is a cosmopolitan city where many different cultures live together and where different languages can be heard on each street. This liveliness and international flair is, of course, intimately related to its role as a crossroads for all of Europe.
The same variety and contrast can also be found in the different architectural styles that can be found in Brussels, the former capital of the medieval Duchy of Brabant. Gothic cathedrals and churches are next to - and sometimes in stark contrast with - gracious classical facades like the buildings around the Royal Square (Place Royale - Koningsplein), or beautiful art nouveau and art deco houses. The heart of Brussels and the place to start getting to know the city is the Grand'Place (Grote Markt). This historic market square with its splendid guild houses and the impressive Gothic beauty of the Town Hall, is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful town squares in Europe. The city of choice for Eurocrats, Brussels is sumptuous, historic and luxuriously cosy. With artistry richer than chocolate, architecture as graceful as its cuisine and diversity frothier than the beer, Brussels is an heirloom of northern culture at its best. What makes Brussels special? Great seafood in great restaurants, the smell of hot waffles on a cold winter's day, cafes and pubs that never close, the cosmopolitan but neighbourly feel, forests practically on the doorstep, pheasant and truffles in autumn, comic strips, designer shops. The city's character largely mirrors that of Belgium: confident but modest, and rarely striving to impress. For visitors, it's full of delights - Grand Place, mussels with chips, pralines, uncrowded museums, intimate hotels, Art Nouveau, Horta, Tintin and unbelievable beers.
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Attractions |
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Cathédrale des Sts Michel & Gudule:
This splendid twin-towered cathedral at Parvis Sainte Gudule is named after Brussels' male and female patron saints. After years of renovation, it now sits gleaming on the hillside to the north of Gare Centrale. The rather out-of-the-way location means it is often overlooked - lost between the lower and upper towns and not on any of the paths most visitors tread.Begun in 1226, the cathedral took some 300 years to build and consequently reveals a blend of styles - from Romanesque through all the stages of Gothic and right up to Renaissance. The interior is light and airy but almost bereft of decoration due to plundering, first by Protestants in the 17th century and later by the French army.Beautiful stained-glass windows flood the nave with light and the enormous wooden pulpit, depicting Adam and Eve being driven out of Eden by fearsome skeletons, is worth inspecting. In the crypt are the remains of an 11th-century Romanesque chapel.
Grand Place:
Brussels' magnificent central square, Grand Place, boasts the country's finest baroque guildhalls, popular pavement cafes and intimate restaurants. Hidden at the core of the old town, it's only revealed as you enter the narrow side alleys surrounding the square, a discreet position that adds to its charm. The square dates from the 12th century and was once marshland. By the mid-14th century, Brussels was booming and a prosperous market covered not only the Grand Place but also the surrounding streets, as evidenced by names such as Rue au Beurre (Butter St), Rue des Bouchers (Butchers' St) and Rue du Marché aux Poulets (Chicken Market St). The city's increasingly wealthy merchant guilds established headquarters - guildhalls - right in the middle of the milieu. The city added the Hôtel de Ville, cementing the Grand Place's role as the hub of commercial, political and civic life in Brussels. If you were promoting a jousting tournament or public execution in medieval Belgium, this would have been your A-list venue.Most of the square's historic buildings were destroyed in 1695, when France's King Louis XIV bombed the area for 36 hours. The Hôtel de Ville was the only major building to survive - ironic, considering that it was the primary target and nearly all the other buildings on Grand Place today are 17th-century replacements. The superb structure of Hôtel de Ville, with its creamy façade covered in stone reliefs and an intricate 100m-high (328ft-high) tower topped by a gilded statue of St Michel, is open for guided tours.
The Grand Place radiates different auras depending on the time of day and season. In the morning, superb guildhouses at the bottom (southern) end glint in the sun; at dusk, the azure sky becomes a vivid backdrop to the illuminated buildings. During the summer a carpet of flowers covers the whole square, and in winter ice-skaters swirl across the transformed cobbled surface.
Manneken Pis:
The present-day bronze Manneken Pis was sculpted by Jerôme Duquesnoy in 1619, but a stone version - named Little Julian - stood here from the mid-14th century.The statue's origins are lost in legend: some say he's modelled on a boy who extinguished a fire, others say he was the son of a nobleman. Whatever, the people of Brussels have adopted him as the symbol of their indomitable and irreverent spirit, and on occasion dress him up in one of his 650-odd costumes.
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique:
This museum houses Belgium's premier collections of ancient and modern art and is particularly well endowed with works by Pieter Breugel the Elder, Rubens and the Belgian Surrealists. Both sections are large and you'll need a good day here if you want to do them justice.The Royal Museums of Fine Arts is actually a single museum divided into two sections - the Musée d'Art Ancien and the adjoining Musée d'Art Moderne. If you plan your visit, you may be able to use the weekly lunchtime concert held in the Musée d'Art Ancien as a break between the two sections; phone the museum beforehand for details. The best strategy is to buy a plan of the rooms and follow its colour-coded system.
Rue des Bouchers:
Leading off from Galeries St Hubert in a lively little quarter known as Ilôt Sacré is the famous Rue des Bouchers. Whether you decide to eat at one of the many seafood restaurants here or not, this pedestrianised cobbled street is a spectacle not to be missed. Both sides of the street are packed with tables where you can dine throughout the year (overhead heaters supposedly keep frostbite at bay in winter) and hard-sell waiters entice would-be diners with displays of marine delicacies and the odd novelty (singing fish are the latest attention-grabbing devices being used).
Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée:
The Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art is a grand, ambitious showcase of the illustrated stories that have been humouring, confounding and inspiring local and foreign enthusiasts for decades. The collection's impact is heightened by its setting in the stupendous Grand Magasin Waucquez, an Art Nouveau department store created in 1906 by Victor Horta.The building is pure Art Nouveau - light, airy and full of glass and wrought iron. Despite standing empty for 16 years, it was spared from the demolition madness that stripped Brussels of many of its Art Nouveau showpieces and is now worthy of a visit in itself.Fans of Hergé will find a much photographed replica of Tintin's red and white rocket, plus plenty of examples of his work. The top level traces the evolution of Belgian comics from the 1960s to the present.
European Parliament:
Since 1958, when the city was chosen as the provisional seat of the European Commission and Council of Ministers, Brussels has been the de facto 'capital of Europe'. Today, the European Union (EU) is headquartered east of the city center, where some 18,000 Eurocrats process red tape and try to keep the planet's second-largest economy on track.The EU area is bordered by the Petit Ring to the west and Parc du Cinquantenaire to the east. It's not a district for idle wandering. Totally abandoned on weekends, it comes to life only on weekdays, particularly at mealtimes. Despite this, the area does offer some interesting sights, including art nouveau houses, museums and views of the new European Parliament building.The best place to get an overall perspective of the EU area is from the northern end of rue Froissart. Looking west from here, you can see the now defunct Berlaymont, which up until 1991 was the European Commission's bustling headquarters (it's now undergoing remodeling, including the removal of tons of asbestos).You can also see the Council of the European Union from this vantage point, as well as the distinctive glass and steel European Parliament building, built in 1998.The EU area isn't exactly a fun mecca of tourist infrastructure, but it does provide a unique view of regular people making history without shooting at each other.
Musée Bruxellois de la Gueuze:
Anyone with even a vague interest in Belgian beer must not miss the excellent family-run Cantillon brewery, where the owners still proudly use traditional methods to make their fine lambic beers.Also called 'the champagne of the poor', lambic is a unique beer that takes years to make and comes out sparkling right when you need it. There are three main types. The most popular (but still something of an acquired taste) is gueuze, a sour, refreshing beer made from a mix of different-aged lambics.Kriek comes from lambic mixed with real cherries, and traditionally has a rather sour similar to Framboise, a slightly sweeter raspberry beer. Faro is a sweet beer with a short shelf-life (the caramel and sugar added to the lambic cause strong fermentation and possible explosions).Seventy years ago there were some 50 family-run breweries in Brussels, but today the century-old Cantillon Brewery is the sole survivor. So grab an English-language leaflet and make your way around the ancient, and at times dusty, complex. Then head back to sample two of the brews on the house.
Shopping:
At the Flea Market on place du Jeu-de-Balle, a large square in the Marolles district, you can find some exceptional decorative items, many recycled from the homes of the "recently deceased," as well as unusual postcards, clothing, and household goods. The market is held daily from 7am to 2pm.Every weekend, the place du Grand Sablon hosts a fine Antiques Market. The salesmanship is low-key, the interest pure, the prices not unreasonable (don't expect bargains though), and the quality of the merchandise which includes silverware, pottery, paintings, and jewelry is high. The market is open Saturday from 9am to 6pm and Sunday from 9am to 2pm.The Grand-Place has a daily Flower Market. Nearby, at the top end of rue du Marché-aux-Herbes, in a square loosely called the Agora, there's a weekend Crafts Market, with lots of fine specialized jewelry and other items, mostly inexpensive.The area around the Gare du Midi is the site of the vast Sunday Market, which lasts from 6am to 1pm. It features a large number of Middle Eastern and south European merchants who offer food, clothing, and household goods, as well as unusual items from their home areas. (Don't park in this area on a Sat evening, planning to leave your car there on Sun it will be towed away for sure.) From mid-May to September, painters, sculptors, potters, photographers, and other artists sell their work and some of them produce it, too at the Marché d'Art, Parvis Saint-Pierre, Uccle. The market is on Sunday from 10am to 1pm.Two weekends before Christmas is the occasion for the European Union Christmas Market in the Grand-Place. From Friday evening until Sunday evening, the square is a hub of activity, as each country of the EU sets out its stall with traditional foods and other products. There's music, singing, and dancing, and the festive spirit is fueled by mulled wine and typical national drinks. The main problem is that at times the square gets so busy that it is almost impossible to move. Still, this is another colorful and memorable event. Avenue Louise attracts those in search of world-renowned, high-quality goods from such storesas Cartier, Burberry's, Louis Vuitton, and Valentino.The Galerie Agora (off of the Grand-Place) offers a wide variety of modestly priced merchandise, including leather goods, clothing, souvenirs, records, and jewelry. Belgian Specialties: Chocolate & More Belgians know a thing or two about chocolate. Just ask anyone who has ever bitten into one of those devilishly dangerous handmade pralines made and sold by Wittamer, Nihoul, Cornez, Neuhaus, Leonidas, and well, it's a long list. Lace is another old favorite that's widely available in the city, particularly in and around the Grand-Place.Other traditional products of Brussels are beers like gueuze, kriek, and faro, among the 400 or so different Belgian beers; geneva (gin), of which there are some 270 brands produced by 70 distilleries; crystal, particularly superb Val-St-Lambert crystal from Liège; ceramics; jewelry; hand-beaten copper or bronze; and even diamonds, though Brussels is nowhere near as sparkling in this respect as Antwerp.Finally, sweet-toothed shoppers might like this tip: try Dandoy for old-fashioned, spicy speculoos biscuits (traditional Belgian goodies made with cinnamon, ginger, and almond) and other treats. The shop can be found at rue au Beurre 31 (tel. 02/511-03-26).
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More Information |
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Useful Links About Brussel:
Brussel Travel Information
http://www.brussel.digicity.be/
Tourist Office
Town Hall of Brussels
Grand'Place / Grote Markt 1 - 1000 Brussels
Tel: +32-(0)2-513.89.40
Fax: +32-(0)2-514.45.38
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