The city (municipality) of Brussels (French: Bruxelles or Ville de Bruxelles) is the capital of Belgium, of the Flemish Community, the French Community and the Brussels-Capital Region. The municipality has about 194,000 inhabitants, of which about a third live in the historic Pentagon, about half in the northern extension, in the sub-municipalities of Laken, Neder-over-Heembeek and Haren and the rest in the neighborhoods around Avenue Louise, Ter Kamerenbos (together the southern extension) and in the eastern extension, the European quarter, the largest part of which also belongs to the municipality.

Brussels grew up around a castle on an island in the Zenne. When the city expanded, a first city wall was built, of which some parts have been preserved. It soon proved too small and a second pentagonal city wall was built. It included seven hills: the Koudenberg, the St.-Michielsberg, the Warmoesberg, the Mont des Arts, the St.-Pietersberg, the Sablon and the Botanic Garden. Of this second wall, only the tower of the Porte de Hal remains above ground; underground retaining walls were found during the construction of the Munthof metro station. View of Brussels, 1664-65 by Jan-Baptist Bonneroy The city successively became the capital of the Duchy of Brabant, the Seventeen Provinces, the Southern Netherlands, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (together with Amsterdam), Belgium, the Flemish Community, the French Community and the Brussels-Capital Region and is the administrative center of the European Union. In 1853, the area of ​​the European Quarter was annexed with the eastern extension of Brussels, in 1864 the Bois de la Cambre and the Avenue Louise leading to it followed with the southern extension of Brussels, and in 1921 the municipality experienced its greatest expansion with the annexation of Haren, Laeken , Neder-Over-Heembeek and the northern extension.

Due to the international character of Brussels and the large number of foreigners and residents from Flanders and Wallonia, there are few real Brussels residents to be found in Brussels. They even got a special name. For example, a Ketje is an original inhabitant of Brussels who was born and raised there together with both parents. A Zinneke was also born there, but has only one parent who can call herself Ketje. Their language is characteristic. The original Brussels is a Brabant dialect. From a linguistic point of view, it is characterized by the many loanwords from French and by the French pronunciation of Dutch words. It developed from the local variant of Middle Dutch that was spoken in the Middle Ages. There is also a Brussels variant of French. It contains many loanwords from Dutch and Dutch-influenced pronunciation. You can find more information about the use of the two official languages ​​in Brussels in the article about the Brussels-Capital Region.