The little town of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau is a weird place. It has two town halls, two post offices, two fire stations and even two legal systems, because it is partly Dutch and partly Belgian.
It is hard to know where the border runs, as the settlement is made up of 22 tiny Belgian enclaves located within the Netherlands, along with seven Dutch exclaves located within the Belgian enclaves. As a result, there are dozens of international frontier lines running through the town, each marked with a line of small white crosses.
One frontier passes straight through a cafe; another border cuts through a house – the living room is in the Netherlands, but the kitchen lies in Belgium. The house has two doorbells and even two house numbers. The address is Loveren 2 in Belgian Baarle-Hertog, but Loveren 19 over the border in Dutch Baarle-Nassau.
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This complex situation originated in a series of mediaeval treaties in which land was transferred between the Lords of Breda and the Duke of Brabant. When the Dutch Republic split from the Spanish Netherlands in the sixteenth century, the plots of land where divided into Dutch (Nassau) and Spanish (Hertog).
After Belgium split from the Netherlands in 1830, the border was finally settled by a commission after 15 years of discussing how to sort out the muddle. Even local postmen are confused, which is why each house has a flag attached to indicate whether it is Dutch or Belgian.
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.
