Brussels: What European urban narrative?

Abstract

The ‘narrative turn’ in European studies mainly focused on the documents and speeches about European integration. Another dimension has largely been left aside: a possible narrative of the Europe as conveyed by the urban landscape of the main seat of the European institutions, Brussels. The city is not as impressive as a capital such as, Washington, and European monuments and buildings are discreet because the city was only confirmed as the European Union (EU) seat in 1992. The European narrative is therefore embodied in monuments and buildings scattered across the city. An analysis of the European monuments and buildings in Brussels shows three different layers of this narrative: pre-EU cultural and historical elements related to mythology or the European Middle Ages, the founding fathers of the EU, and the cold war period as well as European reunification. Nevertheless, these components lack the ordering and emplotment necessary for a strong narrative, even if the European institutions recently unveiled projects of mobile applications which put those elements in a wider framework.