Brussels
Brussels has grown from a 10th-century fortress town founded by a descendant of
Charlemagne into a metropolis of more than one million inhabitants. The metropolitan
area has a population of over 1.8 million, making it the largest in Belgium.
Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been an important centre for
international politics. The presence of the main EU institutions as well as the
headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has made the city
a polyglot home of many international organisations, politicians, diplomats and
civil servants.