Walloon Brabant

Walloon Brabant is a province in Belgium. It sits inside the French-speaking region known as Wallonia.

This area is surrounded by several other provinces. To the north, it borders Flemish Brabant. It also touches the provinces of Liège, Namur, and Hainaut. The province covers about 1,097 square kilometres. About 414,000 people lived here in early 2024. Wavre is the capital city of the province. However, a place called Braine-l'Alleud has even more people.

The history of this land goes back a long time. The names "Walloon" and "Brabant" are very old. In the year 1628, a writer named Louis de Haynin described the area. He noted that people used language to tell regions apart. He said Walloons spoke French. This province was part of a larger area called Brabant. In 1995, the old province was split into three parts. This helped Belgium organize into three different regions.

Many important events happened in this province. In June 1815, the famous Battle of Waterloo took place here.

You can still see parts of the land today. The province has one main district called Nivelles. This district contains 27 different municipalities. Some places are very old and beautiful. For example, Nivelles has the Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude.

Walloon Brabant is a very wealthy place to live. It is the wealthiest province in the Wallonia region. Many people work in the nearby capital city of Brussels. This helps the local economy grow very strong. There is also a large science park in Louvain-la-Neuve.

This park covers 231 hectares of land. It helps many smart companies work together. These companies focus on things like life sciences and engineering. One big company in Rixensart makes many vaccines. They send out 36 doses of vaccines every single second! This helps keep people healthy all over the world.