Page 25 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Belgium & Luxembourg

A POR TR AIT OF BEL GIUM AND L UXEMBOURG  23

Palatial office of the international steel giant Arcelor Mittal in Luxembourg City
of raw diamonds. Belgium also benefits among the industry’s most respected
financially from being the primary centre names. In the world of books, the Belgian
of EU administration. Tourism is a key authors Georges Simenon, creator of
sector as well, with its main focus on Inspector Maigret, and Hergé, creator
Brussels and the Flemish cities of of Tintin, rank among the world’s top-
Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent. selling authors.
Luxembourg’s largest industry Both Belgium and Luxembourg
used to be the production of produce talented sportsmen,
high-quality steel. These days, who acquit themselves well at
financial services, banking and Diamonds the Olympics, especially in the
insurance, are the main income from Antwerp fields of judo, high jump and
earners. The country also houses athletics. Belgium has produced
numerous major inter national outstanding tennis players, notably world
Internet companies. champions Kim Clijsters and Justine
Henin. Both countries excel in professional
Art and Sport cycling, with 22 winners of the Tour de
Historically, Belgium is known for France between them. This includes
having produced some of the finest art Belgian Eddy Merckx, considered the
and architecture in Europe. This includes greatest professional cyclist ever.
the pioneering oil painting of Jan
van Eyck and his contemporaries,
Rubens’s spectacular Baroque
canvases, Victor Horta’s Art Nouveau
style, as well as the Surrealism of
René Magritte and Paul Delvaux.
Like its neighbour, Luxembourg
also has an outstanding art scene,
boosted by the opening of the
prestigious Musée d’Art Modern
Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM) in 2006.
Similar dynamism has been shown
in ballet and film, and also in
fashion, where Antwerp-based Belgium’s champion cyclist Eddy Merckx leading the race at Vincennes,
designers in particular number 21 July 1974

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