Brussels Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Brussels (French: Bruxelles, Dutch: Brussel, German: Brüssel) is a major city in Belgium and its capital.
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2 Etymology 3 History 4 Universities 5 Transport 6 Conferences and world fairs 7 Tourist attractions 8 See also 9 External links |
Brussels is first of all a city located in the middle of Belgium and its capital, but it sometimes also refers to the main municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region. This municipality inside Brussels is correctly named The City of Brussels (Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles in French, de Stad Brussel in Dutch), which is one of 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region.
See also: Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region.
The Brussels-Capital Region is a region of Belgium in its own right, alongside the Flemish Region and Wallonia. Geographically, it is an enclave of the Flemish Region. Regions are one component of Belgium's complex institutions, the three communities being 'the' other component: the Brussels people must deal with the either to the French (speaking) community or the Flemish Community for matters such as culture and education.
Overview
Brussels is also the capital of the French Community of Belgium (Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles in French) and of Flanders; all Flemish capital institutions are established there: Flemish Parliament, Flemish governement and its administration.
Two of the three main institutions of the European Union, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, have their headquarters in the Berlaymont building in Brussels. The third main institution of the European Union, the European Parliament, also has parliamentary chambers in Brussels (its plenary sessions are held at its headquarters in Strasbourg). This leads to another meaning, especially in British English, where the city is used as a metonym for some aspects of the Union. "Brussels is considering banning raunchy TV images"
Brussels is also the political seat of NATO, i.e. the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and the Western European Union (WEU).
The language frontier divides Belgium into a northern, Dutch-speaking, region and a southern, French-speaking, region. The Brussels region is officially bilingual, while the majority of its residents speaks French (see the linguistic history of Brussels in this article's history section).
The name Brussels comes from Bruocsella, Brucsella or Broekzele, which means "marsh (bruoc, bruc or broek) home (sella or zele)" or "home in the marsh". Several theories exist on how the name evolved. One of these theories is that "Broekzele" was spelt "Bruxelles" in French. Later on, the 'x' changed to an 's', giving rise to the current Dutch pronounciation and spelling.
A small castle was built around 979 C.E. near the Senne.
The small town became in the 12th century an important stop on the commercial road from Bruges to Cologne.
The Heysel Stadium disaster took place in Brussels on May 29, 1985.
The Brussels Capital Region is currently home for both French- and Dutch-speakers. Dutch, or more precisely its "linguistic predecessors", was the language of the city from its foundation. In those first 6 centuries, French was only used in the relations with the then "Romance-speaking" (linguistic predecessors of French) areas around Nivelles. During the Austrian period, 'Dutch' remained the popular language in Brussels, and French was for several centuries only spoken by the haute-bourgeoisie and the nobility. It started becoming only a somewhat popular language under the French regime, and especially after 1830, by the immigration of many French (revolutionaries and others) and many Walloons, attracted by the new Belgian authorities. As in 1830, only the haute-bourgeoisie and the nobility (1% of the population) had voting rights, these groups wanted to fashion the new state along their personal preferences. As a result, they had to attract many French-speaking Walloons to staff the public services.
The area, which is geographically situated in the south of Flanders, was still mostly Dutch-speaking until the middle of the 20th century. During the 19th and 20th century, more and more French-speaking civil servants coming from Wallonia settled in Brussels and persistent social, administrative, cultural and political pressure made many Flemings switch their vernacular to French.
The Brussels-Capital region nowadays is officially French-Dutch bilingual and some municipalities in Flanders around Brussels have special linguistic facilities to protect the right of the French-speaking minorities.
On 4 September 1998 the Council of Europe published a resolution entitled
"Situation of the French-speaking population living in the Brussels periphery"
[1] which focussed on a linguistic conflict affecting six communes in Flanders, and
made recommendations to both the Flemish government and the French-speaking inhabitants.
The International Labour Organisation, a UN agency, reported ([1]) the results of an experiment, involving two testers applying for jobs in Belgium, where the Moroccan job applicant was discriminated against in favour of the Belgian.
On the one hand, many Flemings complain about a strong pressure from French-speakers against the bilingual status inside the Brussels-Capital region. Belgian judiciary has never engaged in any official investigation; all these complaints are still pending. In the early 90's, an official declaration from the regional government explicitly acknowledged that social housing was de facto reserved entirely for those applying in French. As late as 2003, Rudy Demotte, the federal minister of Public Health and a French-speaking socialist, has publicly acknowledged that urgent medical services discriminated against Dutch speakers, in the sense that it was often difficult for Dutch speakers to use their own language [1].
On the other hand, there are reports and claims of discriminations against French-speakers in the outskirts of Brussels regarding access to health care, using their own language, and social housing [1] [1] [1].
Brussels has several universities, two of them being the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). 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.
Brussels is served by Brussels International Airport, located in the municipality of Zaventem, and by Brussels South Airport, located near Charleroi.
Brussels metro dates back to 1976.
Brussels hosted the third Congrès international d'architecture moderne in 1930.
Two world fairs took place in Brussels, the 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.
This is an Article on Brussels. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Brussels Etymology
History
Linguistic history
Universities
Transport
Conferences and world fairs
Tourist attractions
See also
External links