The village of Baarle, located an hour and a half from Amsterdam, is both Belgian and Dutch. How is this possible? On the one hand, the municipality of Baarle-Nassau, on the Dutch side, has 2700 inhabitants. On the other hand, the municipality of Baarle-Hertog, on the Belgian side, has 6,800. A single village, in two countries! What kind of strange border is this?
The village of Baarle or the strangest border in the world
A lot of borders tend to be kind of random, but Baarle is pretty strange. It is indeed shared between two municipalities from two distinct countries. But that’s not all! Because the village is also formed by a series of small enclaves belonging to both countries. In total, it has twenty-two Belgian enclaves registered in Dutch territory and seven Dutch enclaves registered in Belgian territory. A real puzzle!
Furthermore, can you imagine that part of the Baarle town hall building is located in Belgium and the other in the Netherlands? It is even the only town hall in the world to be literally crossed by a border.
This situation has obviously caused certain complications throughout history and in 1995, an agreement fixing the exact boundaries of Baarle was signed by both countries. On the other hand, such a location was also conducive to clandestine markets, and Baarle has indeed long been a historic location for smuggling and the black market. Sugar, gin, butter, salt, tobacco and even livestock were among the goods sneaked from one place to another. A statue installed in 1996 pays homage to this chapter of the village’s history, which has now become part of local folklore.
And finally, to understand this situation, we must go back to the Middle Ages, and to the nebulous distribution of land between lords and dukes…