Brussels

Brussels

Brussels is the largest municipality and historic center of the Brussels Capital Region and the capital of the Flemish Region and Belgium. The city is an administrative, commercial and financial center of Belgium, and is home to most services and institutions of national importance. Brussels is also a major European tourist and cultural attraction, being both a regional metropolis and an international center. The city is bilingual, with Flemish and French used side by side in all areas of public life. Brussels is located in the central plateau of Belgium. Situated between the sandy plains and polders of the Atlantic coast to the north and the rugged Ardennes mountains to the south, Brussels has long been the economic and transport hub of the wider region, spread across the valleys of the Scheldt, Sambre and Meuse rivers. In the Middle Ages, Brussels was surrounded by two successive fortifications built in the 11th and 14th centuries. The latter circle, which included the commercially important Senne and a major mountain range to the east, was roughly pentagonal in shape, traces of which can still be seen from the air. The Pentagon is the historic city center of Brussels. The Central Quarter is located in the heart of the Saint-Géry formed by the river Senne, where the first keep was built around 979. The Royal Quarter is so named because it is home to the Place Royale, built under Charles-Alexander of Lorraine on the Coudenberg hill on the spot of the former palace of the Dukes of Brabant, and the Royal Palace of Brussels, overlooking the Brussels Park, with the Belgian House of Parliament on the other side. There are many museums and churches in and around Brussels city center.