Belgium, Vilvoorde

Vilvoorde is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the city of Vilvoorde proper and the town of Peutie.

The city is home to a large Spanish minority. In the center of the city, 1 out of 10 inhabitants have the Spanish nationality and the proportion of Belgians with Spanish roots is even greater.

From 2000 until August, 1th 2007, the mayor of Vilvoorde was former Belgian prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene. Marino Keulen (Open VLD), minister of Home Affairs, appointed Marc Van Asch as the new mayor of Vilvoorde.

History

The Nervii, and later the Romans, probably already settled in this strategic place near the river Zenne. The name Filfurdo was first mentioned in a 779 document whereby Pippin of Herstal ceased this territory to the Abbey of Chèvremont, near Liège. This name presumably derived from the word equivalents villa at the ford or river crossing.

In the 1920s, the canal was broadened and deepened again, lined with new industrial zones, and an inland port was built to receive the freightliners. Vilvoorde became (and still is) one of the largest industrial area around Brussels, with a population that grew to five times what it was 150 years earlier.

Sights

The neo-classical city hall and a covered market hall can be found on the main city square.
The city also has interesting churches, including the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) that was started in the 14th century, and the basiliek Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ten-Troost (Basilica of Our Lady), built in the17th-century Baroque style and adjoining the cloister of the Carmelites.

Events

Like many other Belgian cities, Vilvoorde has a week-long carnival, which takes place every year around the end of February, beginning of March.