Saint-Josse-ten-Noode

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (usually shortened to Saint-Josse) or Sint-Joost-ten-Node is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.

On 1 January 2007 the municipality had a total population of 23,785. The total area is 1.14 km² which gives a population density of 20,664 inhabitants per km². With only 1.14 km², Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is both the municipality with the smallest territory and the highest population density in Belgium.

Nationalities
While foreigners were a majority in 1995, nowadays most of the population has Belgian citizenship, which has resulted in a sharp increase of municipal councillors with a foreign background, benefitting from the open proportional electoral system: from 0 in 1988 to 2 (from Morocco) in 1994, a near majority of 13 (7 from Morocco, 5 from Turkey) out of 27 in 2000 (including 3 aldermen) and a majority of 20 out of 27 in 2007 (including 6 aldermen out of 7, the seventh is a member of the Flemish minority ).

History
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode was originally a farming village on the outskirts of Brussels. In the centuries before the dismantling of the ramparts encircling Brussels, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode was also the place where noblemen built country estates, the most notable amongst them the Castle of the Dukes of Brabant built by Philip the Good in 1456. The area surrounding that castle was planted with wine groves which explains the presence of the bushel of grapes in the coat of arms of the commune.

After the demolition of the ramparts, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode was one of the first areas outside Brussels to urbanise. The rich built houses around the new boulevards and higher parts of the commune, while industries and workman's cottages were built in the lower lying part close to the River Zenne. In 1855, 58% of the land area of Saint-Joose-Ten-Noode was annexed by the commune of Brussels to make way for the Squares Ambiorix, Palmerston, Marie-Louise and Marguerite of the newly created Leopold Quarter (now the European Quarter).

According to an inventory of architecture commissioned by the region of Brussels, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode has on average the oldest buildings of all 19 Brussels communes.

Mayors of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode
From: "Histoire de Saint Josse Ten Noode et de Schaerbeek - Van Bemmel - 1869" and other sources available at the local public library.


 * André-Etienne-Joseph O'Kelly 1800 - 1808
 * Jacques-Joseph De Glimes (GLIM) 1808 to July 1813
 * Théodore-Nicolas-Joseph Aerts	1813
 * Jean-François Wauvermans 1813 - 1823
 * Urbain Henri Verbist	1823 - 1842
 * Léonard Constant Willems 29 December 1842 - 1846
 * Jacques Joseph Damas Gillon 18 April 1846 - 1867
 * Louis Guillaume Felix Sainctelette 13 February 1867
 * Fritz Jottrand 1870 - 1884
 * Armand Steurs	1885 - 1899
 * Henri Frick 1900 - 1926
 * Georges Petre	1926 - 1942 alderman, then mayor from 1926 until his destitution and assassination by the Rexists in 1942)
 * Joseph Dery 1944 - 1947
 * André Saint-Remi 1947 - 1953
 * Guy Cudell 1953 - 1999
 * Jean Demannez	1999–2012 (councillor in 1976, alderman in 1977, mayor since 1999, reelected in 2000 and 2006)
 * Emir Kir 2012-present