Haren (; ; sometimes written ''Haeren'' in French) is a former municipality of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium, that was merged into the

City of Brussels The City of Brussels is the largest List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality and historical City centre, centre of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the ...

in 1921. It is an outlying part of the municipality and is situated at the north-eastern edge of the

Brussels-Capital Region Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital ...

, bordering Machelen outside the boundary. Haren's

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

is 1130. In contrast to most of Brussels, Haren has maintained nearly as many Dutch-speakers as French-speakers and has preserved a somewhat rural appearance.

History

The first mention of Haren dates from a little after 1050 in a book on the miracles of Saint Trudo and designates a

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

.''Haren, ancienne commune'', in: ''Dictionnaire d'Histoire de Bruxelles'' (in French), Collection Dictionnaires, Éditions Proposon, Brussels, 2013, pp. 397 A second mention dated more precisely to 1138, relates to the foundation and endowment of the chapter of St. Gudula (future cathedral of Brussels), the most important ecclesiastical owner in Haren. The lords of Haren were involved in the management of the

in the 17th century. Brussels' first airport was located in Haren between 1914 and the early 1950s. The site, which was later used by the Belgian Air Force, serves since 2018 as NATO's new headquarters, previously located south of the /. The current site of

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport is the main international airport of Belgium. It is located in the municipality of Zaventem in Flemish Brabant, northeast of Brussels. Also informally known as Brussels-National Airport or Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Brussels ...

is located several kilometres to the east. Between 1932 and 1997, Haren was also the location of a

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

automobile factory, which in 1969, for the first time, produced more than 100,000 cars in a single year. At that time, it was concentrating on the assembly of Renault 4 and Renault 6 models, mostly for sale in

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

, Germany and Scandinavia. Renault also assembled AMC's Rambler automobiles there for sale in European markets.

Main sites

* Haren is host to the headquarters of NATO,

Eurocontrol The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, commonly known as Eurocontrol (stylised ''EUROCONTROL''), is an international organisation working to achieve safe and seamless air traffic management across Europe. Founded in 1963, Eur ...

, as well as those of many large international companies. * Haren Prison opened in 2022; it is a prison village occupying a site, with a designed capacity of 1,190 persons. It was partly built on the site of the derelict Wanson factory, and partly on a nature reserve. File:Aéroport d'Haren en 1929.png, File:New HQ NATO 7.jpg, File:Eurocontrol hoofdkwartier 1.jpg, File:Haren Marshalling.JPG,

Transport

Haren has three railway stations:

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

(formerly called Haren-Buda, situated just outside the Brussels boundary) on line 25 between

and

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, Haren (formerly called Haren-Linde) on line 26 between Halle and

Vilvoorde Vilvoorde (; ; ; historically known as ''Filford'' in English) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city in the Halle-Vilvoorde district (''arrondissement'') of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Bra ...

, and Haren-South on line 36 between Brussels and

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

. The marshalling yard of the

National Railway Company of Belgium The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Ve ...

(SNCB/NMBS), sometimes referred to as '' Schaarbeek Vorming'', is largely located within the territory of Haren.

Politics

Mayors

Historical list of

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

s or

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

s of Haren:Serge Jaumain, ''La région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Éditions Racine'', coll. ''Histoire et patrimoine des communes de Belgiques'' (in French), 2011 (ISBN 978-2-87386-585-6) * 1840: Jean-Baptiste Vanderelst * 1871: F. Van Pevenage * 1874: A. A. Jacobs * 1879: P. Vanderelst * 1901: J.B. Van Holsbeeck * 1905: L.M.A Maes In 1921, Haren ceased to be a municipality, the mayor being from then on that of the City of Brussels.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Marc Meganck and François-Emmanuel de Wasseige, ''Châteaux et demeures de Bruxelles (I) : Haren'' in ''Demeures Historiques et Jardins'' (in French), March 2012, no. 173, p. 2–9. * ''Le château de Haren'' in ''Annales de la Société royale d'archéologie de Bruxelles'', 1913 (vol. 27), p. 269–276.

External links

*
Belgium railway details
{{Neighbourhoods in Brussels Neighbourhoods of Brussels City of Brussels Former municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region Populated places in Belgium 1921 disestablishments in Belgium