10 Things Even Brusseleirs Don't Know About Their City

The history of Belgium is complex! Once French, then Dutch, it was also occupied by Spain... This joyful cultural blend has influenced its inhabitants, as evidenced by the Brussels dialect...

Here's a top 10 list of quirky little things about Brussels that even Brusseleirs are unaware of!

During the gold rush, Brussels politicians had grand plans to modernize a poor and popular neighborhood of Brussels: the Marolles. Tired of these dark alleyways, barely 2 meters wide and stretching, like corridors, for 300 or 400 meters long. They demolished everything and started anew!

Where to relocate the displaced?

No problem: just put them on the next ship to the Americas!

This is how many Brusseleirs found themselves forcibly exiled to the New World, with many landing in Chicago.

Having nothing, they were viewed with suspicion and considered thieves. They soon earned the nickname 'men from the gang' >> (literally > in Dutch, these famous endless alleyways): the infamous gangsters!

The estaminet, a small bar, originates from the Spanish contraction:

Esta (un) minuto

Which could be translated as >: because people drank quickly back then!

However, some linguists lean towards another origin, still Spanish: Esta (una) minuta, which would mean >.

The caberdouche, a popular and disreputable bar, also comes from Spanish:

Cabe (una) dulce

Literally, >>: a bar large enough to host a sweet woman for the pleasure of men.

Another origin could be >, where 12 would be the lowest pricing of cabarets. This hypothesis is, however, more dubious, as it assumes it refers to the word for twelve in French, which had little or no standing at the time.

Brussels is mainly known for its tapestries and lace... But who still knows today that the capital has some of the oldest canals in Europe still in use, dating back to the 16th century?

Unfortunately, this heritage lies under the shadow of false linguistic political quarrels...

It's not only Spanish that has influenced Brussels and its dialect. The English also contributed to the creation of local vocabulary.

Derived from kid, the word > and > (kiddo) was born in the lovely Marolles neighborhood (there it is again!). I'll leave it to your imagination to interpret the derived verb: ketter...

In a game of chicken >, guess who comes out on top? You can never rewrite politics, but history...

After Belgium's independence in 1830, it became fashionable to erase any trace of the Dutch past. Thus, at the Grand Hospice of Brussels, there is a false inscription! The only truth on the large commemorative plaque is the architect's name.

This plaque was salvaged from another building, constructed just after Belgian independence, the Pacheco. The latter was demolished and merged with the Grand Hospice. However, lucky break, the architect was the same!

The actual construction date (1826) is visible on another commemorative plaque, as well as above a secondary entrance of the Grand Hospice.

Do you know the origin of the word boulevard? As strange as it seems, this word finds its roots in the Dutch language and in the city of Brussels.

Medieval cities were protected by walls, forming an almost perfect circle around the city center. Different eras gave rise to different fortifications, each time further away from that center.

The boulevards were built much later, on the ruins of these now useless fortifications.

Boulevard comes from the Dutch bolwerk, meaning fortress (and the idea of the circle is also found in the word >).

Yet another word from Dutch! Brocante originates from the word brol >>, which might be translated as... brol, but only for Belgians, as it is a Belgianism! Hmm...

For non-Belgians, a brol is a gadget, an object of little value or utility that often clutter and creates disorder.

Street name plaques are also worth noting in Brussels: nothing is trivial. Don't be surprised, with your dictionary in hand, to not find a match for some names in French and Dutch!

For example, Broekstraat is not the Pant Pant Street, but the Marsh Street. > (marsh) comes from a word in Old Dutch that is now lost. This word is also thought to be the origin of the name of the city of Brussels.

Why two different street names?

The Dutch names correspond to the original names of the place, often derived from the surrounding context (market, quay...), and are thus very descriptive... While the French names have a completely different history: they were assigned much later by officials who, from their office, translated the names without concern for the reality on the ground.

These makeshift translators followed orders: everything straight is a street. Thus we have in French the Chicken Market Street, while the translation should have just been Chicken Market >>, as one can see on the Dutch version of the plaque.

Over 100 years ago, a Brussels bar, La Cour Royale, was one of the few establishments to have a telephone. Journalists would spend the day there, patiently waiting for the latest scoop while playing pitjesbak (a dice game now known as 421). When the phone rang, the game had to finish immediately with a simple roll of the dice, the Mort Subite.

Brussels is a true puzzle of eras, genres, and beliefs: a city full of contradictions! In this historical mélange, many pieces of heritage have found themselves threatened by modernization attempts. To preserve them, some have been moved from their original locations: statues, fountains... and even entire churches!

A nice example is the church at Place De Brouckère. Dismantled due to vaulting works on the Senne, its front facade was salvaged to construct the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Chatelain neighborhood.

For those who haven't seen it yet, for the last national holiday, François gave you a crash course on the Belgian accent... or rather Brussels accent: because the Belgian accent doesn't exist!

We thank Ibis and Visit Brussels for giving us the opportunity to rediscover our capital. More articles will follow about Brussels, a city to (re)visit in 1001 different ways!

So, verdict: how many did you know? Do you have other quirky and lesser-known anecdotes about Brussels?

Feel free to share them in the comments!

To continue the stroll...