Invitations to sign the Visitors' Book are at the discretion of the Mayor. The majority of the signatures are by Heads of State and officials, but may also include guests of honour in the City, such as artists or famous sportspeople. The Visitors' Book is generally signed in the Mayor's office at the end of the reception, often during a photoshoot.

These Visitors' Books are bound in leather and feature the Saint Michel, the symbol of the City, on the cover. All the page edges are gilded. The Visitors' Books are managed by the Protocol Service and then stored in the City Archives.

Three Visitors' Books can be consulted online. The first covers the period 1843 to 1967 and the second runs from 1967 to 1999. The pages of the third book have been scanned up until November 2010.

Consulting these Visitors' Books on the City's website is a means of browsing pages in the history of the City of Brussels.

How to use the online Visitors' Books

The City of Brussels Visitors' Books can be browsed online. The virtual pages can be turned using a mouse. The cursor (at the top) makes it possible to move between the pages of the Book.

There is an icon for moving to a full-page view. There is another button is for zooming in; the magnified image can be moved with the mouse (by pressing on the left mouse button). All the pages can be printed.

Warning: due to a problem with the register's binding, the right-hand part of the text is cut off on the first ten pages of the first volume. This cutting did not occur during the scanning operation.