What do you think of this fact?
We picture borders as a line separating two countries. In Baarle, it’s more like a patchwork quilt. Walking from the couch to the fridge here can mean changing countries.
One town, two countries
Baarle sits on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands and is actually two municipalities: Belgian Baarle-Hertog and Dutch Baarle-Nassau. The twist: Baarle-Hertog is made up of 22 small Belgian enclaves in the middle of the Netherlands. And some of them contain bits of the Netherlands again.
According to The Brussels Times, that’s why there are two town halls, two post offices, two fire stations and even two legal systems. The border lines are each marked with a row of small white crosses, just so people can keep track.
One house, two house numbers
Some borders run straight through buildings. On a street called Loveren, there’s a house whose living room is in the Netherlands and whose kitchen is in Belgium. It has two doorbells and two house numbers: Loveren 2 for the Belgian part and Loveren 19 for the Dutch part.
Each house also has a flag showing whether it’s Dutch or Belgian. According to The Brussels Times, even the local postmen get confused.
Bonus fact: Depending on how you count, there are even more pieces. Dutch Genealogy counts 30 enclaves in total: 22 Belgian and 8 Dutch.
How did this happen? The mess goes back to medieval treaties that shuffled pieces of land between the Lords of Breda and the Duke of Brabant. The borders weren’t finally fixed until the Treaty of Maastricht in 1843.
In Baarle, you don’t need a passport to go abroad. Sometimes a trip to the coffee machine will do.