ABSTRACT
In the Middle Ages Brussels1 was already a town of some standing due to its situation on the trade route between Cologne and Bruges, and because of its role as the centre of the flourishing production of woollen cloth. At quite an early stage the town also became the seat of the dukes of Brabant. A first town wall was built around 1100, and another was constructed some time after the middle of the fourteenth century. Over 7 km in length, this second wall covered an area that in terms of medieval conditions was a large one, and one which was not in fact exploited in full until the nineteenth century. The urban area consisted of two parts, each with its own special topographical nature, on the one hand the ville basse and on the other the ville haute lying much higher on the hills to the east. The lower town, which grew up on both sides of the river Senne, was the medieval town of the burghers, while the upper town was dominated by the ducal stronghold on the Coudenberg. This division between a commercial city and an administrative royal seat has persisted to the present day.
