Center Of Brussel Editorial Photo

Brussels has grown from a 10th-century fortress town founded by a descendant of Charlemagne to a sizeable city.The city has a population of 1.2 million and a metropolitan area with a population of over 1.8 million, both of them the largest in Belgium. Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a major centre for international politics. Hosting principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the city has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants.