Ixelles

Ixelles is located in the south of Brussels and is divided into two parts by Avenue Louise/Louizalaan, which is part of the City of Brussels. The municipality's smaller western part includes Rue du Bailli/Baljuwstraat and extends roughly from Avenue Louise to Avenue Brugmann/Brugmannlaan, whilst its larger eastern part includes campuses of Brussels' two leading universities; the French-speaking Université libre de Bruxelles and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel, along with Eugène Flagey Square. The Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos is located just south of Ixelles.

The construction of Avenue Louise was commissioned in 1847 as a monumental avenue bordered by chestnut trees that would allow easy access to the popular recreational area of the Bois de la Cambre. It was also to be the first Haussmann-esque artery of the city of Brussels. However, fierce resistance to the project was put up by the town of Ixelles (which was then still separate from Brussels) through whose land the avenue was supposed to run. After years of fruitless negotiations, Brussels finally annexed the narrow band of land needed for the avenue in addition to the Bois de la Cambre itself in 1864. That decision is the reason for the unusual shape of today's City of Brussels and for the separation of Ixelles into two separate areas.

Porte de Namour around 1900

Ixelles is known throughout Belgium for its large community of people of African origin. This population is mainly concentrated near the Namur Gate (French: Porte de Namur, Dutch: Naamsepoort), and the neighbourhood is nicknamed Matongé or Matongué after the marketplace and the commercial district with the same name in Kalamu, Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo). The core of Matongé was formed in late 1950s by the foundation of Maisaf (an abbreviation of Maison Africaine or African House) which served as a centre and residence for university students from the Belgian Congo. After Congolese independence in 1960, the district faced an influx of immigrants from the new state who shaped the neighbourhood in a style to resemble the original Matongé. During the sixties and into the seventies, the area was a well known meeting place for students and diplomats from Zaire. At the time they were known locally as Belgicains. There are also communities from other African countries, mainly from Rwanda, Burundi, Mali, Cameroon, and Senegal, present in the district.

The famous shopping arcades, the Galerie d'Ixelles and the Galerie de la Porte de Namur are both located in the heart of Matongé. In the gallery and the adjoining streets, a large number of specialised food shops and suppliers can be found. The area is renowned for its clothes, shoes and material shops, hairdressers and wigmakers, booksellers, jewellers and craft shops, making the area unmissable for many local and even international visitors, men and women, young and old. Over 45 different nationalities amongst the residents and shopkeepers can be counted, including most African countries. Statistically, many of the shopkeepers are not necessarily local residents. Amongst the visitors and window shoppers to Matongé are many who appreciate African fashion and the life-style.

The district also attained notoriety from the early 2000s with gang violence perpetrated by African gangs, partly composed of exiled child soldiers like Black Démolition. It was the scene of race riots in January 2001. Matongé, with its more recent immigrant communities from Latin America, Pakistan, and India along with African ones, is seen as a symbol of multiculturalism in Belgium. The local authorities, community groups and residents with a certain degree of success have more recently re-established the area as a safe place to visit. As the area and property ages there is increased pressure and interest from property developers to expand the European Quarter on one side and the fashionable Avenue Louise on the other, effectively Matongé is sandwiched between the two.

Every year since 2001 at the end of June, a successful multi-cultural festival, Matonge en Couleurs, has been organised in the area. The date coincides with the celebration of Congolese independence. The film Juju Factory, released in 2006, was partly filmed in the area. The local television channel Télé Bruxelles broadcasts a weekly magazine programme, Téle Matongé XL.

The pedestrian street Rue Longue Vie/Lange-Levenstraat is full of snack-bars where African food is sold. Most of these have been decorated by the famous Afro-European artist John Bush. Le Soleil d'Afrique has almost become his museum, with not only his original paintings on display, but also other painted surfaces and furniture.

• The buildings of La Cambre Abbey house a renowned school for the visual arts, the National Geographic Institute, and various parish functions.
• The Ixelles Ponds and Tenbosch Park are noted parks in the middle of the municipality.
• The Streamline Moderne building on Eugène Flagey Square, formerly known as the Maison de la Radio, used to house the Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting.[8]
• The Résidence de la Cambre, the first high-rise building in Brussels, on Boulevard Général Jacques/Generaal Jacqueslaan, is another notable Art Deco building.
• Ixelles was a centre of Art Nouveau architecture in the first decades of the 20th century. Several Art Nouveau houses built by Victor Horta are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,[9] and some of them can be visited.
• The three Brussels universities—Université libre de Bruxelles, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Saint-Louis University—have campuses in Ixelles. As a result, the southeast part of the municipality is home to a large number of students.
• Ixelles Cemetery is one of the most important cemeteries in the country as it contains the graves of a number of famous Belgian personalities. It was there, in 1891, that the French General Georges Boulanger, leader of the right-wing Boulangerists, committed suicide, on the tomb of his mistress, who had died a couple of months earlier.
• Ixelles also houses several interesting churches and museums, including a fine-arts museum and the Constantin Meunier Museum established in the residence where the artist lived part of his life.

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  View from the cour d'honneur (main courtyard) of La Cambre Abbey in Ixelles
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  An Art Nouveau doorway in Ixelles, dating from 1902
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  View of the Ixelles Ponds towards Eugène Flagey Square
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  The main building on the Solbosch campus of the Université libre de Bruxelles
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  Former Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting (or Maison de la Radio) on Flagey Square

Several fairs are organised in Ixelles, including the Spring Fair on Place Flagey, which takes place between the fourth and sixth Sunday after Easter, and the Boondael Fair at the end of July.

Born in Ixelles (sorted by first name):

• Agnès Varda, film director (1928-2019)
• Albert Crahay (1903–1991), soldier and commander of the Belgian battalion at the Battle of the Imjin River during the Korean War
• Annemie Neyts (1944), politician, MEP
• Anna Boch (1848–1936), Impressionist painter, art collector significant (as Vincent van Gogh)
• Audrey Hepburn, actress, fashion model, and humanitarian (1929–1993), Kayenveld street, N°48
• Auguste Alfred Lucien Lameere, entomologist (1864–1942)

Bust of Auguste Perret

• Auguste Perret, architect (1874–1954)
• Boris Szulzinger (b. 1945), film director and producer
• Camille Lemonnier, writer and poet (1844–1913)
• Emile Vandervelde, statesman (1866–1938)
• Frank Ntilikina (born 1998), professional basketball player
• Michel Regnier, also known as Greg, comic-book writer and artist (1931–1999)
• Jacky Ickx, racing driver, (b. 1945–)
• Jaco Van Dormael, screenwriter and film director (b. 1957)
• Jacques Feyder, screenwriter and film director (1885–1948)
• Jean-François van Boxmeer (b. 1961), manager
• Jules de Burlet (1844–1897), prime minister
• Julio Cortázar, writer of novels (1914–1984)
• Kris Bosmans (b. 1980), cyclist
• Leo Joseph Suenens, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (1904–1996)
• Marc Moulin (1942–2008), jazz and fusion musicians, author
• Michel de Ghelderode, avant-garde dramatist (1898–1962)
• Natacha Régnier, actress (b. 1974)
• Paul Hymans, politician and former president of the League of Nations (1865–1941)
• Paul Saintenoy, architect, teacher, architectural historian, and writer (1862–1952)
• Pierre Kolp, composer (b. 1969)
• Pierre Rapsat (1948–2002), singer
• Ursula von der Leyen, former German Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs and Minister of Defence, President Elect of the European Commission (b. 1958)
• Yannick Carrasco, footballer (b. 1993)

Lived in Ixelles:

• Anna Boch, artist and art collector, owner of the Villa Anna (1848–1936)
• Antoine Wiertz, painter and sculptor (1806–1865)
• August de Boeck, composer, organist, and music pedagogue (1865–1937)
• Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840–1917)
• Charles de Coster, novelist (1827–1879)
• Constantin Meunier, painter and sculptor (1831–1905)

Élisée Reclus

• Edith Cavell (1865–1915) British nurse and World War I martyr ran a nursing school here from 1907
• Elisée Reclus, geographer and anarchist (1830–1905)
• Ernest Solvay, chemist, industrialist, and philanthropist (1838–1922)
• Giacomo Puccini, composer (1858–1924); lived and died at nr 1, avenue de la Couronne; a tablet with an inscription is visible on the building wall
• Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, painter (1821–1909)
• Jean-Baptiste Moens, philatelist and stamp dealer (1833–1908)
• Jacky Ickx, racing driver, (b. 1945–)
• Johan Michiel Dautzenberg, writer, (1834–1878)
• Karl Marx, philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary (1818–1883)[13]
• Maria Malibran, mezzo-soprano (1808–1836)
• Neel Doff, writer (1858–1942)
• Octave Maus, art critic, writer, and lawyer (1856–1919)
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, anarchist thinker (1809–1865)
• Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary and first head of the Soviet Union (1870–1924)

• Ixelles Cemetery
• Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ixelles.

• Official site of Elsene / Ixelles municipality (in French and Dutch)
• museum of Ixelles (in French, Dutch and English)