The City of Brussels: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The City of Brussels (Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles in French, Stad Brussel in Dutch) is one of the municipalities (the largest one) of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium.

The City of Brussels within the Brussels-Capital Region

A bit like the City of London is different from London, the City of Brussels is different from Brussels. However, the expansion of the City was frozen at a later date than the City of London, so that in addition to the old center of Brussels, the towns of Haren (Dutch) or Haeren (French), Laken (Dutch) or Laeken (French) and Neder-Over-Heembeek (Dutch and French), the Louise Avenue and the Bois de la Cambre (Ter kamerenbos in Dutch) are included.

On January 1st, 2000, the City of Brussels had a total population of 133,859 (66,380 males and 67,479 females). The total area is 33.39 km² which gives a population density of 4,008.95 inhabitants per km².

Although some misbelieve that the capital of Belgium is the City of Brussels municipality, the Belgian Constitution (Art. 194 and 166) makes it clear that the capital of Belgium is Brussels in the broad meaning of the term. Indeed the use of lower case in "ville" and "stad" in Art. 194 for "ville de Bruxelles" (French), "stad Brussel" (Dutch) makes all the difference (even if it may seem subtle).

In practice, national Belgian institutions are indeed not only located in the City of Brussels, although many are, but also in most of the other 18 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital region.

As each one of Belgian municipalities, the City of Brussels is headed by a mayor which should neither be confused with the Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region nor with the Governor of Brussels-Capital.