As
the capital and independent region
of Belgium, Brussels is a cosmopolitan
city with a lively artistic and
cultural life and it is also a
first-rate political and financial
center on a world scale.
If the particular geographical
position of Belgium has given
the nation the appellation of
“Europe’s heart”,
the present position of the European
Union institutions main organs
makes the city the real centre
of the Old World’s politics.
The presence of the political
organizations’ offices,
so as the ones of the commercial
companies and the international
banks, made Brussels a city of
thousand languages and faces,
where tradition and regional characteristics
blend with change and internationalindividuality.
Thanks to it being located in
the centre of the country, on
the border between the two most
important regions – Flanders
and Vallonia – the town
has always contained the cultural
characteristic of both regions;
in fact for those who live here
and for those who visit it, the
Belgian capital is both the flemish
“Brussel” and the
french “Bruxelles”.
The traveller, who reaches the
Belgian capital, can find a considerable
artistic and architectonic legacy,
a superb tradition in the art
of beer and chocolate, an efficient
transports organization and an
irreverent child, who pees in
front of everybody since 1619…:
“Manneken Pis”, a
little bronze statue, the symbol
of the city.
