City of Brussels
Originally, fierce resistance to the project was put up by the town of Ixelles—then, as now, a separate municipality (local authority) from the City of Brussels—through whose territory the avenue was to run. After years of fruitless negotiations, Brussels finally annexed the narrow band of land needed for the avenue, plus the Bois de la Cambre itself, in 1864. That decision accounts for the unusual shape of today's City of Brussels and for Ixelles being split into two separate parts.