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Which of these is the most recent symbol of Brussels ?

Atomium. The Cinquantenaire Museums for Art and History, which offer a nice vista on Brussels, were built for the festivities in 1880 which celebrate 5O years' existence of Belgium. The Basilica of Koekelberg was a brainchild of Leopold II. It was begun in 1905, but the building was not finished until 1970. It never was very popular as a building, though well visible. About as inspiring as a public swimming-bath in some people's opinion. The statuette of Manneken Pis (Manneken means little man) certainly existed already in 1619, and there may have been an older original. Fench soldiers tried to carry it off and in 1817 it was stolen by an ex-convict. It is popular with the tourist industry but not everybody will feel it's an example of good taste. There is a story that says some little boy extinguished a beginning fire in this way during the time of the Burgundian dukes. The Atomium represents an iron atom, magnified 165 billion times. It was specially built for the Brussels World Exhibition of 1958. Somehow it gave Brussels something as recognizable as the Parisian Eiffel Tower.

There is no doubt that the geographical, historical and commercial heart of Brussels is the Grand'Place. The houses constitute a harmonious entity and most of them have statuettes symbolising their names such as the Fox, the Horn, the She-Wolf,the Wheelbarrow, the Swan, etc. One of them, the Pigeon at nr.26 was, in 1852, the residence of an important French writer in exile. Who was he?

Victor Hugo. Near the same Grand'Place there was a hotel 'A la ville de Courtrai'. It was here, on 10 July 1873 that Paul Verlaine shot and wounded his young fellow poet and lover Arthur Rimbaud. Also Baudelaire stayed for a while in Brussels. He was not particularly happy about his experiences here, especially after a blunder he made when thanking schoolgirls for the attention they had given to a speech of his. Telling them he was grateful as they had helped him overcome his shyness as a beginning speaker, he phrased his innocent thoughts like this: 'Your kindness has quickly made me realize that this virginity of words is in fact no more difficult to lose than any other'. The schoolgirls were hastily ushered out.

The area around the Grand'Place is the ideal spot to find such local goodies as lace,beer and Belgian chocolates. One type of beer is typically linked to Brussels because, for its fermentation an enzyme is required that is only found in the atmosphere of the local Zenne-valley. What's the name of that local beer?

Gueuze. Duvel and Forbidden Fruit are excellent, but also very potent pilsener beers. As a name 'Forbidden Fruit' refers to the label which represents Adam in Paradise offering Eve a pint of the delicious stuff. Trappist beers do not occur in the Brussels area: only at real Trappist monasteries such as Rochefort, Chimay, Orval, West-Vleteren and West-Malle can they be brewed. There is a Gueuze Museum at 56 rue Gheude 1070 Brussels. The Cantillon Brewery demonstrates how the special type of beer is made by mixing old and young lambic beers.

Which of these areas has been called the 'belly of Brussels' because of its multitude of little restaurants and the massive response of the hordes of tourists?

Rue des Bouchers (Butchers' Row). In the Marolles Quarter one can find the 'ordinary people of Brussels' and you still can hear their dialect, which is a rough mix of Flemish and French. There is a daily flea-market and one can visit the house where Pieter Brueghel the Elder lived ( nr 132 in Rue Haute). The St.Hubert Galleries were the first shopping arcade in Europe and are still one of the most elegant. Rue Neuve is now Brussels' main shopping-street. At the site of the present Inno department store was the House where the Duchess of Richmond gave her famous Ball on the Eve of Waterloo. Rue des Bouchers is part of l' Ilot Sacre, the Holy Island, an area where eateries abound.

Fortunately Brussels is not all about food, beer and lace as the tourist industry seems to suggest. There are various interesting museums. One of the most recent is in what was once the Old England Department Store: the Museum of Musical Instruments. Belgium not only played a role in the history of music via musicians such as Eugene Isaye, Arthur Grumiaux, the International Queen Elizabeth {competition;} there even was a Belgian who invented one of the more important music instruments. Which one?

the saxophone. The inventor was Adolphe Sax.

Also in other arts there was some Belgian contribution. There are the surrealist painters Paul Delvaux and Rene Magritte. But also some important architects of the Art Nouveau Movement. Which of these names refers to the best-known of them, whose own house in Rue Americaine at Ixelles has now become a museum ?

Victor Horta. 'Dandoy' is the name of a famous 'speculoos biscuit' manufacturer at Rue au Beurre 31. The house has existed since 1829. Antoine Wiertz (1806-65) is a rather eccentric painter of the morbid-Romantic school.He has his own museum. Pierre Alechinsky is one of the more important living painters in Belgium and belonged to the Cobra-movement. (C-openhagen-BR-ussels-A-msterdam). Horta(1861-1947) built various important Art Nouveau buildings

Brussels has two excellent Art Museums, the Ancient Art Museum in Rue de la Regence and the new subterranean Modern Art Museum at Place de la Regence. When W.H. Auden visited Brussels the museums were still housed in ONE museum the Musee des Beaux Arts. Auden was especially struck by works such as 'The Fall of Icarus' and 'The Census at Betlehem'. He liked the sideways view of the painter who always seemed to focus on the unimportant circumstances rather than on the topic as suggested by the title. Who was that slightly ironic painter?

Pieter Brueghel the Elder. In 'the Fall of Icarus' we see a few bystanders who hardly notice or understand what's happening. Of Icarus himself we see just the legs disappearing into the waves of the sea.

The art of the comic strip - the Ninth Art ? - has always been very popular in Belgium. It even got its own museum in an old Art Nouveau building by Horta, the Waucquez House in Rue des Sables. It pays a lot of attention to the creator of the popular comic character Tin Tin, and such side-characters as Captain Haddock, the Thompsons and Professor Calculus. Who was that creator?

Herge aka Georges Remi. Ensor was an Ostend-born, late nineteenth-century (often very satirical and morbid) painter. Ghent-born Leo Hendrik Baekeland is the inventor of 'bakelite', a precursor of 'plastic' and classified by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. Johnnie Halliday was born in Brussels as Jean-Philippe Smet (1943)

What typical product of Belgium is represented by all of these famous manufacturers, whose shops are omnipresent in the Brussels tourists' areas : {Neuhaus;} {Godiva;} {Wittamer;} Leonidas.?

chocolates. Neuhaus, Leonidas, and Godiva are chainstores. Wittamer has only one, very exclusive shop on Sablon Square. The 'pralines' these houses sell are a real delicacy. Packaged in crepe tissue in finely decorated luxury boxes, the chocolates make an ideal gift and can be sent directly from Brussels to the tourist's home address. The explanation for Belgium's success on the chocolate market are probably to be linked with the easy access the Belgians got to Africa's cocoa plantations via Leopold's acquisition of what later became 'Belgian Congo'.

To end on a cultural note, one of these British women authors studied for some time at the former Pensionnat Heger ( at the site of the present-day Palais des Beaux Arts). Later she became a teacher. She fell in love with Mr. Heger himself, but as there was no future for such a love she returned home and expressed her feelings in a novel called 'The Professor'. Who was she?

Charlotte Bronte. Emily and Charlotte came to Brussels in 1842. After nine months both were recalled because an aunt had fallen seriously ill. In January 1843 Charlotte returned as a teacher. After the love-affair had failed, she wrote two books that dealt with her experience. 'The Professor' and 'Villette'. 'The Professor' was published only posthumously.