The municipality comprises the city of Vilvoorde proper with its two outlying quarters of Koningslo and Houtem and the small town of Peutie.

In the 12th century, a small town started to grow, which quickly became a target for the ambitions of the dukes of Brabant and lords of Grimbergen.

Henry I, Duke of Brabant granted the city its charter of rights as soon as 1192, mainly to ensure the support of the inhabitants against powerful neighbouring Flanders.

The rights to build defensive walls and to export its products gave Vilvoorde a great economic boost, driven mostly by the cloth industry.

From the 15th to the 18th century, however, Vilvoorde suffered a prolonged decline, mainly because of the competition from Brussels, a general malaise in the textile industry, and the result of epidemics and wars, both political and religious.

In 1597 Anna Utenhoven, an Anabaptist accused of heresy, was buried alive in Vilvoorde – the last of the Protestants suffering martyrdom for their faith in the history of the Habsburg Netherlands.