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The Lower Town is the commercial centre of Brussels, a bustling quarter that's home to most of the city's best restaurants, shops and hotels. It fans out from the Grand-Place, north, south and west to the boulevards of the petit ring, and east as far as the foot of the ridge which marks the start of the Upper Town, along the line of boulevards Berlaimont, L'Imperatrice and L'Empereur. The layout of the heart of the Lower Town remains essentially medieval - a labyrinth of narrow, cobbled lanes and alleys whose names mostly reveal their original purpose as markets: rue du Marche aux Fromages, for example. This medieval street pattern is interrupted by the boulevards that were inserted during the nineteenth century - part of a drive to modernize the city. At the same time the River Senne was covered over and hundreds of culs-de-sac were eliminated. The boulevards, however, done little to disturb the jostle and jangle that give the Lower Town its character, with almost every street crimped by tall and angular town houses. There's nothing neat and tidy about all of this, but that's what makes Brussels so intriguing - dilapidated terraces stand next to prestigious mansions and the whole district is dotted with superb buildings: everything from beautiful Baroque churches through to Art Nouveau department stores.
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