Brussels History is a long and layered narrative shaped by trade, politics and culture. From its beginnings as a medieval settlement on the Senne, through the splendour of the Burgundian and Habsburg courts, the turmoil of Spanish rule and the Belgian Revolution, to the colonial ambitions of Leopold II and the modern role as a European capital, Brussels has always stood at the crossroads of power and identity.
Brussels history | histoire de Bruxelles | geschiedenis van Brussel | Geschichte von Brüssel | historia de Bruselas | historia Brukseli | storia di Bruxelles | история Брюсселя | ブリュッセルの歴史 | 브뤼셀의 역사 | 布鲁塞尔的历史 | Brüksel tarihi
Today’s post is dedicated to a city that I hold in great affection and have had the chance to visit many times. Most often my trips there were work-related, but because they required more than just flying in for a day and heading straight back – sometimes a week, and once even two – I had the opportunity to get to know the city more closely. Until now I have written several posts about specific buildings there, but I have never devoted one to the city itself and its history. Today feels like the right occasion to do so – to rediscover Brussels, the capital city of Belgium and the European Union.
The Burgundian and Habsburg Capital
In the 10th century, Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, built a fort on Saint-Géry Island where the Senne river was navigable, laying the foundation for Brussels. A turning point came in the late Middle Ages when in the 14th century Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and youngest son of the French king John II, married Margaret III of Flanders, heiress to vast lands in the Low Countries. Under Philip’s successors, especially Philip the Good, these lands expanded further. By the end of the 15th century, Brussels had become the de facto capital of the Burgundian Netherlands, serving as a residence of the ducal court and a center of administration.
The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels, a masterpiece of Brabantine Gothic. Built between the 13th and 15th centuries on the site of an earlier Romanesque church, it features twin towers that dominate the city skyline. As the main Catholic church of Belgium, it has witnessed royal weddings, state funerals, and national ceremonies, and remains one of the few major landmarks to survive intact long before the 1695 bombardment.
The strategic location of Brussels played a decisive role in shaping its prosperity. Situated on the Senne river, the city became a natural hub for the trade of goods between the wealthy Flemish cities such as Bruges and Ghent, the Rhineland, and regions further afield. Markets flourished, drawing merchants from across Europe who came to exchange products.
Brussels, like many cities in Flanders and Brabant, specialised in the production and trade of textiles, particularly woolen cloth. This industry was not only the backbone of the local economy but also a cornerstone of the medieval European economy. The city’s craftsmen earned a reputation for producing high-quality textiles, which were exported far beyond the Low Countries.
The growth of trade and manufacturing was further stimulated by the presence of the Burgundian and later Habsburg courts. Their demand for luxury goods and fine craftsmanship encouraged the development of diverse industries and services. Brussels also hosted trade fairs, which facilitated the exchange of goods and ideas, linking the city more closely to the wider European economy.
As Brussels grew in wealth and prestige, the question of public finances became increasingly important. The city’s prosperity relied not only on trade and craftsmanship but also on an organised system of revenue that allowed it to fund infrastructure, fairs, and, eventually, the splendid projects that symbolised its power. Taxes on commerce, levies on goods entering the city, and contributions from wealthy citizens all strengthened the urban treasury. Within this financial system, the guilds played a decisive role. Organised around specific crafts and trades, they regulated production, ensured the quality of goods, and trained apprentices. But their influence went far beyond economics: guilds wielded considerable political power, often participating directly in the governance of the city and holding seats in municipal councils.
Some guilds rose to particular prominence. The brewers, whose industry was among the most profitable in Brussels, accumulated vast wealth and influence. The butchers, by maintaining a monopoly on the supply of meat, secured steady income and leverage in urban politics. The cloth weavers and drapers, tied to the textile trade that formed the backbone of the city’s exports, also ranked among the wealthiest and most respected corporations. Even the boatmen, controlling river transport along the Senne, held strategic importance for the flow of goods.
Daily life in medieval Brussels looked rather different for the majority of its inhabitants than for the wealthy guild masters. The narrow streets were crowded and noisy: artisans worked in open workshops, market traders haggled at stalls, and carts full of goods rolled across the bridges over the Senne. Poorer townsfolk and domestic servants often lived in modest timber houses, vulnerable to fire and disease. Periodic outbreaks of plague, typhus and dysentery swept through the crowded quarters, with the Black Death of the mid-14th century leaving a particularly deep mark on Brussels.
The city’s wealth allowed it to raise splendid and ornate buildings – and its pride was the central square with its magnificent Town Hall, which – despite the turbulence of wars – has survived in an almost unchanged form to this day.
The Town Hall of Brussels (Hôtel de Ville), a masterpiece of Brabantine Gothic, was begun with the right wing between 1401 and 1421, while the soaring tower was added in 1449–1454 and the left wing later in the 15th century. Because the later addition did not perfectly match the earlier construction, the façade appears strikingly asymmetrical. Rising 96 metres and crowned with a statue of St. Michael, the Town Hall is the most authentic building on the Grand Place surviving the 1695 French bombardment, and preserving its original medieval character.
When the last Burgundian duke, Charles the Bold, died in 1477, the Burgundian Netherlands passed to the Habsburg dynasty through the marriage of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, to Maximilian I of Austria. Under Maximilian I and later Charles V, who was born and raised in the Low Countries, Brussels reached a new peak of prestige. Charles V ruled over a vast empire stretching across Europe and the Americas, and Brussels served as one of his principal residences. The presence of the imperial court attracted nobles, diplomats, merchants, and artists from all over Europe, reinforcing the city’s cosmopolitan character.
The dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburg sovereigns sought to centralise power and reduce the autonomy of guilds and urban institutions. On the other hand, the guilds resisted any attempt to curtail their privileges. Disputes often arose over taxation or the right to influence city councils, and though conflicts rarely escalated into open rebellion, they underscored the delicate balance between princely authority and urban independence. Despite these tensions, both sides recognised their mutual dependence. The rulers needed the wealth of Brussels to sustain their courts and military campaigns, while the guilds relied on princely protection to safeguard trade routes and markets. Still, growing tensions between local privileges and dynastic authority became a defining feature of the period.
Brussels was also a city of languages and cultures. In daily life most people spoke Brabantine Dutch, but at court and among the nobility French became increasingly dominant, while Latin remained the language of administration and scholarship. Merchants from England, Spain, Italy and the German lands added to the city’s cosmopolitan air. Over time, this linguistic divide took on a social meaning: Dutch remained the language of craftsmen and commoners, whereas French became ever more associated with prestige, authority and aristocratic culture. This contrast deepened across the centuries and still shapes Belgium’s identity today.
From Spanish Rule to the Belgian Revolution
After Charles V’s abdication (1555–56), the Habsburg realms were divided and the Low Countries passed to Philip II of Spain. Philip pursued a policy of religious uniformity and harsh repression of Protestantism, combined with centralisation of power and heavy taxation. In Brussels, as in many Netherlandish cities, Lutheran and later Calvinist communities had begun to take root, and in 1566 the wave of iconoclastic riots known as the Beeldenstorm reached the city’s churches. Philip responded by sending troops and by strengthening the Inquisition, which prosecuted heresy with ruthless severity. These measures fuelled growing resentment against Spanish rule and erupted into the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648). Over the following decades, the northern provinces broke away, forming the Union of Utrecht (1579) and laying the foundation of the Dutch Republic.
The southern provinces, however, failed to break away from Spanish control. Strong military garrisons, the success of the Counter-Reformation, and the reluctance of many Catholic elites to join the rebellion kept the south under Habsburg authority. It was this division that gave rise to the Spanish Netherlands, with Brussels as their capital. Brussels remained the administrative and ceremonial heart of the southern provinces. The presence of the governor-general, representing the Spanish Crown, ensured that the city retained prestige, even as its international economic role diminished.
As the capital of the Spanish Netherlands, Brussels retained its importance as a political and administrative centre, but its economic fortunes shifted during the seventeenth century. The long conflict of the Eighty Years’ War had disrupted trade routes and drained resources, weakening the city’s role in international commerce. While northern ports like Amsterdam rose to dominance, Brussels was increasingly oriented towards serving the needs of the Spanish court and administration.
Despite these challenges, the city’s economy did not collapse. Luxury industries, such as tapestry weaving, flourished under royal patronage and commissions from European nobility. Brussels’ workshops became famous across the continent for their elaborate wall hangings, which decorated palaces from Madrid to Vienna. The city also continued to profit from regional markets. Agriculture from Brabant and surrounding areas supplied foodstuffs, while traditional crafts like brewing and cloth production remained staples of urban life.
Still, the scale of commerce could no longer rival the dynamism of the Dutch Republic to the north. Brussels’ economic trajectory under Spanish rule thus reflected a shift: from a thriving hub of European trade to a court-driven economy, sustained by the presence of rulers, nobles, and their demand for luxury goods and services.
The seventeenth century was marked by almost constant warfare between the Spanish Habsburgs and France, whose kings sought to expand their influence into the Low Countries. Brussels became not only a political centre but also a strategic target. The most dramatic moment came in 1695, during the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697). French troops under King Louis XIV launched an attack on Brussels, bombarding the city with heavy artillery. The Grand Place, the pride of the city and the seat of its guilds, was almost entirely destroyed.
The financial strength of Brussels was still so great that the Grand Place, devastated by the French bombardment of 1695, was rebuilt in barely five years. Between 1695 and 1700, the city’s guilds and wealthy citizens financed the reconstruction, each contributing to the splendid facades that today surround the square. The result was not only a rapid recovery from disaster, but also a unique ensemble of late baroque architecture that remains one of Europe’s most celebrated urban landmarks.
The House of the Dukes of Brabant (Maison des Ducs de Brabant), a monumental façade uniting seven guild houses on the Grand Place. Rebuilt between 1697 and 1705 after the French bombardment, it is decorated with busts of the Dukes of Brabant that give the ensemble its name. This baroque frontage largely preserves its authentic late 17th-century character.
In 1701–1714, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out after the death of the last Spanish Habsburg, Charles II, who left no heir. The conflict drew in all of Europe and turned the Low Countries into one of its main theatres. Brussels once again became a contested city. The war ended with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and the Spanish Netherlands were transferred to the Austrian Habsburgs. Under Austrian rule in the eighteenth century, Brussels enjoyed relative stability and prosperity. The governors-general, often members of the imperial family, resided in the city, and although Vienna controlled foreign policy and military affairs, the Southern Netherlands retained a degree of autonomy in local governance. Cultural life flourished, and the reconstructed Grand Place gave the city a new splendour that impressed visitors from across Europe.
Monument to Charles-Alexandre de Lorraine (1712–1780), governor-general of the Austrian Netherlands, remembered in Brussels for fostering prosperity, culture and the arts during the 18th century. The statue crowns the roof of one of the guild houses on the Grand Place.
A change came as Emperor Joseph II (1765–1790) tried to modernise administration, limit the power of the Church, and standardise governance across his empire. In the Austrian Netherlands, these reforms clashed with local traditions, privileges, and the autonomy jealously guarded by the provinces. In 1789, resentment boiled over into the Brabant Revolution. Rebels, inspired in part by Enlightenment ideas briefly drove Austrian forces from Brussels and declared the United Belgian States. After a couple of months Austrian troops had already restored control, but shortly after in the 1790s, revolutionary France expanded its wars into the Low Countries.
After the Battle of Fleurus (1794), the Austrian Netherlands, including Brussels, were annexed by France. It was the time of the French Revolution. Brussels became part of the new French administrative system, governed as the chief city of the Département de la Dyle. French rule brought deep changes. Church property was confiscated, monasteries dissolved, and traditional privileges of guilds and corporations were abolished. French law, including the Napoleonic Code, replaced local statutes, while new taxation and conscription systems tied the city directly to Paris. After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo (1815), just outside Brussels, the Congress of Vienna created the United Kingdom of the Netherlands under King William I of Orange.
The idea was to unite the northern and southern provinces into a single strong state that could act as a buffer against future French expansion. Brussels became one of the political centres of this new kingdom, alternating with The Hague as a seat of government. Economically, the south (with its industry and wealth) and the north (with its navy and trade) were meant to complement each other. Yet tensions quickly surfaced: differences in language, religion, and political outlook created growing resentment among the southern provinces. In August 1830, unrest broke out in Brussels, and quickly escalated into a full-scale uprising known as the Belgian Revolution. Brussels was at the heart of the rebellion, and after fierce street fighting, Dutch troops withdrew from the city. On 4 October 1830, independence was formally declared. A constitutional monarchy was established, and in 1831 Leopold I was crowned the first King of the Belgians. From that moment on, Brussels became the capital of the independent Kingdom of Belgium, a role it has held ever since.
Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, where the Belgian Revolution of 1830 began after a performance of La Muette de Portici. At the time, the theatre already displayed a neoclassical façade with columns and a sculpted pediment, though the present building is the result of later 19th-century reconstructions that preserved the classical style rather than the exact 1830 design
Under the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830), Brussels benefited from investment in trade, infrastructure and industry. The southern provinces were more heavily industrialised than the north, with textiles, mining and metallurgy driving economic growth. Brussels, though not a manufacturing hub itself, thrived as an administrative, financial and cultural centre, drawing strength from its central location.
After 1830, independence gave the city a decisive boost. As the capital of the new Belgian state, Brussels became the seat of government, finance and national institutions. The city quickly developed banks, a stock exchange and service industries, consolidating its role as a financial hub. While Wallonia remained the industrial heartland, Brussels flourished as the political and economic nerve centre of one of the most advanced economies in 19th-century Europe.
Colonialism, Transformation and Modern Brussels
While Leopold I consolidated the new Belgian state after independence, ensuring its neutrality and stability, his son Leopold II pursued far greater – and far more controversial – ambitions. Frustrated that Belgium itself lacked overseas possessions, he set out to acquire one personally. Through diplomatic manoeuvres, international conferences and the explorations of Henry Morton Stanley, Leopold secured recognition at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 for his private rule over a vast African territory: the Congo Free State.
Officially presented as a humanitarian and scientific mission, the Congo quickly became the foundation of Leopold’s personal fortune, built on the ruthless extraction of rubber, ivory and other resources. With these revenues, he launched an ambitious programme of urban transformation in Brussels. Monumental projects such as the expansion of the Royal Palace, the triumphal arch and park at Cinquantenaire, the creation of the Mont des Arts as a cultural quarter, and the opening of broad new boulevards were all financed by colonial wealth. In this way, the splendour of modern Brussels was inextricably tied to the exploitation of Africa – a legacy that remains deeply visible in the city’s architecture and public spaces today.
The splendour of nineteenth-century Brussels rested on foundations that were far from glorious. Profits from the Congo Free State financed monumental building schemes, but in Africa they were extracted through forced labour, violence and exploitation of the local population. The brutality of Leopold II’s regime provoked growing international outrage, and under pressure the king was forced in 1908 to transfer the territory to the Belgian state. In Brussels, however, colonial power long remained a source of pride, celebrated in museums, exhibitions and monuments. Only in recent decades has the city begun to confront this legacy more critically, acknowledging the suffering that lay behind its golden façades.
The Royal Palace of Brussels, today the official residence of the Belgian monarchy. Built in the late 18th century on the site of the former Coudenberg Palace, which was destroyed by fire in 1731, it was later transformed by King Leopold II in the 19th century into the monumental neoclassical building we see today
At the same time, Brussels became one of the birthplaces of Art Nouveau, a style that transformed the appearance of domestic architecture. Victor Horta, together with architects such as Paul Hankar, designed houses whose flowing lines, floral motifs and ingenious use of light defined an entirely new aesthetic. Many of these masterpieces still stand in Schaerbeek, Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, where elegant façades, stained-glass windows and wrought-iron balconies turn ordinary streets into open-air galleries.
Townhouses in Schaerbeek, one of Brussels’ neighbourhoods richest in Art Nouveau and eclectic façades, where elegant brickwork and ornate details turn ordinary streets into an open-air museum of early 20th-century architecture
After the death of Leopold II in 1909, Brussels entered a new and turbulent century. Under King Albert I, the city faced the ordeal of the First World War. German troops occupied Brussels (1914–1918), turning the capital into the administrative centre of their military regime in Belgium. Daily life was marked by shortages, censorship and repression, yet the city also became a symbol of quiet resilience. In the interwar years, Brussels recovered, hosting international exhibitions and affirming its cultural prestige, but war returned in 1940. Under King Leopold III, the city again fell to German occupation. This period brought hardship and controversy, with the king’s decision to surrender casting a long shadow over post-war politics.
In the decades after the wars, Brussels underwent rapid transformation. The 1950s and 1960s saw a wave of redevelopment known as bruxellisation, when historic houses and entire neighbourhoods were demolished to make way for office blocks, motorways and modern housing estates. While this symbolised ambition and modernity, it also provoked dismay at the loss of heritage. At the same time the city became ever more multilingual and multicultural: alongside the traditional Dutch-French divide, communities of Italian and Spanish workers arrived, soon followed by migrants from Morocco and Turkey. These new inhabitants contributed greatly to the post-war prosperity of Brussels, shaping the diverse identity of the modern metropolis.
The post-war decades transformed Brussels into the administrative capital of Europe. With the creation of the European Economic Community in 1957, the city was chosen as its provisional seat – a decision that gradually became permanent. Around Place Schuman and Rue de la Loi, the first offices of the new European institutions established a centre of political gravity that would redefine Brussels. From the 1960s onwards, the growing Communities required ever larger headquarters. Their financing came directly from the shared budgets of member states, meaning that the construction and expansion of Brussels as a European capital was effectively funded by taxpayers across the continent. This steady flow of European money reshaped not only the city’s eastern axis but also its economy, attracting thousands of civil servants, diplomats, lobbyists, and journalists. Over time, the European quarter became an engine of employment and investment, giving Brussels a new role beyond its national borders. By the late twentieth century, the city had evolved from the capital of Belgium into the political and administrative heart of the European Union, a transformation underpinned as much by finance and governance as by architecture.
The European Quarter in Brussels at night – the illuminated Rue de la Loi with the Europa building (left) and the Berlaymont (right), at the heart of the EU institutions around Place Schuman.
Today, Brussels is considered one of the most multicultural cities in Europe, not only because of these waves of post-war migration from other continents, but also thanks to the presence of countless officials, diplomats and civil servants who have settled here from all across Europe.
Today, Brussels also dazzles architecturally, offering a panorama of styles that reflect its long and complex history. The Grand Place, still the beating heart of the city, remains one of Europe’s most admired squares, while the Basilica of Koekelberg, a monumental creation in art deco style, stands as a twentieth-century landmark. Beyond these, the city reveals its charm in elegant streets, grand boulevards and carefully planned axes, many of which have survived despite waves of redevelopment. Outside the dense historic core and the modern European quarter, Brussels continues to surprise visitors with its variety of neighbourhoods, where medieval traces, nineteenth-century façades and modernist experiments coexist in a uniquely layered urban landscape.
This post is therefore less about the detailed history of Brussels and more about its visual character, about the way its architecture appears and speaks across the centuries; for those who wish to see more, I invite you to explore the gallery of my photographs from the city as well as my other posts about Brussels, all linked below.
