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Belgium: Brussels City Guide

Brussels is a city brimming over with a long, vexed, and often bloody history. It's a place of artistic virtuosity, from the stunning baroque architecture of its Grand Place guild halls to the art nouveau of its favorite son Horta, and from the sumptuous flavors of its chocolates to the effervescence of its beers. It's also a staunchly multicultural city where one in four of its inhabitants is not a Belgian national, their numbers swelled by its tens of thousands of Eurocrats. It's a city that is in parts extremely opulent, in other parts extremely deprived; terribly stuffy and then reassuringly relaxed; and always more diverse and intriguing than you would at first believe.

The Grand Place, Brussels

The Congolese District

The Matongé is a predominantly Congolese area but it's also home to Indians and North Africans. The Congo was taken by Leopold II in the 1880s as part of Europe's 'Scramble for Africa' and when the country gained independence in the 1960s, waves of Africans came to study and stayed. The area is officially called Ixelles but it's nicknamed Matongé after a suburb with the same name in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa. The area is great to wander around; it's full of exotic shops selling food, clothes, and cosmetics. You'll find wonderful patterned dresses and abacosts (traditional Congolese menswear) hanging in windows. The area comes alive at night with African-flavored clubs open all night.

The European Union District

To Europe, Brussels is synonymous with the European Union (E.U.). It's home to all three major E.U. institutions: The European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of Ministers. The EU area lies east of the city centre but isn't very visually appealing.

The four-winged Berlaymont is the most famous building, dubbed 'Berlaymonster' because its life has been dogged with problems. Built in 1967, its architecture was brash and bold - many called it ugly and soulless. By the 1980s it was looking dated and it was shut in 1991 when massive chunks of cancer causing asbestos were found in it. Since then it's been under white plastic, with the dates for completion constantly put back and the massive costs keep mounting, as do the arguments over who will pay for the huge extra costs - the Belgian government or the EU (who are meant to buy it when it's finished). When it is finally unveiled it is supposed to be a showcase environmental building.

The domed European Parliament building is the home to the legislative branch of the E.U.. It's possible to sit in on a parliamentary session or take tours of the debating chamber (hemicycle) when it's not in session.

Feeding off the E.U. institutions are tens of thousands of journalists, lobbyists, translators, interpreters, drivers, security guards, cooks, waiters, and prostitutes. Brussels now has the largest press corps in the world, outranking Washington. There are also over 10,000 lobbyists in the city, from Greenpeace to the European Chemical Industry Council.

It's also the international or European headquarters for many multinationals (including Levi's, IBM, and Coca Cola) and other organizations. So numerous are the associations and federations in Brussels that there's even associations of associations - like the Federation of International Associations. All this has brought immense wealth - Brussels is the second richest region in Europe, although there gross disparities as rising prices force locals out of upcoming suburbs.

Museums

- The Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts houses massive collection of Belgian art (Breugel, Rubens, Magritte) and others by David, Van Gogh, and others.

- Visit the Belgian Comic Strip Centre, a shrine to Belgian comics in a country where they're an art form. Here you can see originals from Tintin comics, the hero of the French speaking world.

- The Horta Museum is a shrine to the leading proponent of art nouveau in Belgium, Victor Horta. Art Nouveau was characterized by the use of curvy lines which represented a radical departure from the strict classical styles that came before it. It swept through several leading European cities in the late nineteenth century for a brilliant yet brief period and was adopted by architects and designers. The museum is housed in two nouveau buildings, designed by Horta and in which he lived till 1919; it's made up of airy rooms, beautiful timber paneling, stained glass inlays and curled door-handles.

- The Musée Magritte is dedicated to one of the world's top surrealist painters, Magritte, who composed weird yet brilliant art pieces and insisted on wearing a suit as he worked. This is his former house which has many of his own artifacts.

- The Musée de l'Afrique Centrale is basically an anthropological exhibition dedicated to central Africa with its collection of masks, canoes, and other artifacts. The museum lacks exhibits addressing the reality of Belgium's foray into colonialism and their part of the world's first twentieth century genocide, although an exhibition on the colonial era redressing the balance is due to open in 2005.

- With Belgium's dedication to music an essential part of its culture, the Musée des Instruments de Musique is a perfect place to view the city from as its rooftop café has some fantastic vantage points of some of Brussels' key sites. These include Place Royale, the spire of the Hôtel de Ville, and the silver balls of the Atomium, which represents magnified iron crystals. Entrance to the café is free, but if you do pay you gain access to the museum as well hearing sounds including saxophones, Congolese harps, dulcimers and gamelans.

Brussels, like Tokyo, is a Mecca for museums to the unusual. These are a small selection of the delights on offer:

- The Little Brussels Museum of Nests and Feeding Troughs - build and learn to recognize different birds' nests. Telephone: 02 376 52 97

- Witloof Musuem - Dedicated to chicory, a.k.a. Belgian endive. Telephone: 02 216 10 59

- Boyadjian Museum of the Heart - founded by a cardiologist who collected hearts in all forms from across the ages. Telephone: 02 741 72 11

Shopping

Rue Neuve is the main shopping street, a pedestrianized zone full of cheap boutiques and a department store. But be it in summer or winter, don't just spend your day inside as the chocolatiers will tell you. They can be found on almost every street corner in the city, while the main chains such as Neuhaus, Godiva, and Leonidas all have their main branches.


Bars

One of the best beer pubs in Belgium is Chez Moeder Lambic. The pub itself is warm and cosy, plastered with beers mats and adverts and sells wonderful cheese platters to accompany your chosen brew. Open every day from 4pm to 3am.

Chez Moeder Lambic
Rue de Savoie, 68
1060 Brussels
Telephone: 00 32 2539 1419

Alternatively, if you like a quiet, studious atmosphere, the Greenwich Café is a must. People have come here to play chess and drink coffee (or something stronger) since the artist Magritte was a customer. Very quiet, it is the perfect place to come on a rainy day with a book or to watch the world go by.

Greenwich Taverne
Rue des Chartreuse 7
1000 - Brussels
Telephone: 00 32 2511 4167