The quiet, forgotten Flemish village of Buitenland is not the easiest place to find.
It stands on a narrow road in a bend of the Old Scheldt. It is a modest place with a factory producing wicker baskets. But something seems out of place.
Several old buildings look as if they really belong in a city. They were built for Antwerp’s World Fair of 1894 as part of a section called Old Antwerp.
After the fair ended, most of the buildings were demolished, but a few were rebuilt in Buitenland by a local builder whose family owned the basket factory.
The most impressive is a replica of a sixteenth-century Antwerp mansion called the Reuzenhuis, or Giant’s House.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
