Netherlands - Belgium - Baarle-Nassau

First of all, before I’m found out by some obvious blunder, let me confess. I have never been to the two places I intend to write about now. Somehow during my nine years living and working in Amsterdam, I never got round to going there. Terrible lack of curiosity, I know! I’m simply hoping that without any articles about Belgium or the Netherlands in our “We’ve been there” section, this piece will get accepted for inclusion there.

I learned about Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Herzog by accident. A customer in the Amsterdam shop where I worked left a Dutch survey map lying around and before putting it away, intrigued by some of the markings, I had a quick look at it. And that’s how I discovered one of those curious leftovers from Europe’s complicated history – Belgian enclaves in the Netherlands, with Dutch enclaves inside them! Unlike enclaves in other parts of the continent - Campione or Livia (Llivia) - this one is not just a bit of Belgium stuck inside its neighbour but… I think Wikipedia can say it better than I can:

“Baarle-Hertog consists of 26 separate pieces of land. Apart from the main piece (called Zondereigen) located north of the Belgian town of Merksplas, there are 22 Belgian exclaves in the Netherlands and three other pieces on the Dutch-Belgian border. There are also six Dutch exclaves located within the largest Belgian exclave, one within the second-largest, and an eighth within Zondereigen.

"The smallest Belgian parcel measures 2,632 sq m (just over half an acre). The complex border situation is a result of a number of equally complex medieval treaties, agreements, land-swaps and sales between the Lords of Breda and the Dukes of Brabant. Generally speaking, predominantly agricultural or built environments became constituents of Brabant, other parts devolved to Breda. These distributions were ratified and clarified as a part of the borderline settlements arrived at during the Treaty of Maastricht in 1843.”

The two national survey organisations have adopted different solutions to the problem of how to represent this mosaic on their maps. The Dutch use the less immediately noticeable but far more precise markings, while the Belgians have opted for a more conventional method of presenting international borders.

If you want to visit this unusual little corner of Europe, perhaps the Koniginendag (Queen’s Day), Netherlands annual shindig on 30th April, would be the best time to see which bit belongs to which country. ANWB’s road map of the North Brabant Province provides good coverage of the area. Their map of Southern Netherlands gives a wider coverage including Hook of Holland, Vlissingen and Antwerp. The relevant survey maps at 1:50,000 are 50 East from the Dutch Survey or No. 22 – North Brabant Central with similar cartography from ANWB. For the presentation of this area by the Belgian Survey see sheet No. 2-8.

If you want to find out more and see how it all fits together, there are several websites one can consult: Baarle-Herzog and Baarle-Nassau or www.baarle-nassau.nl (this link takes you to the English language section of the website run jointly by Baarle-Herzog and Baarle-Nassau).

Author: Malgorzata Ross
Date: 9 September 2008
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