European institutions in Strasbourg seats in Strasbourg. Due to this concentration in such a small area, Strasbourg, like Brussels, claims the title of "capital of Europe". While Brussels is the capital city of a trilingual State, Belgium, Strasbourg has had long periods of rule by both France or Germany, assimilating both of their cultures and languages (it also has the Alsatian language). Strasbourg also has the distinction of being one of only three cities to host major international institutions without being a capital (the others being New York City and Geneva). In Brussels' case, it claims the title through referring to the European Union,
History of Strasbourg the north tower was built), becoming the World's Tallest Building, surpassing the Great Pyramid of Giza. A few years later, Johannes Gutenberg created the first European moveable type printing press in Strasbourg. In July 1518, an incident known as the dancing plague of 1518 struck residents of Strasbourg. Around 400 people were afflicted with dancing mania and danced constantly for weeks, most of them eventually dying from heart attack, stroke or exhaustion. In the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation, the city, under the political guidance of Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck and the spiritual guidance of Martin Bucer embraced the religious