"En territoire belge et à quarante centimètres de la frontière": an historical and documentary study of the Belgian and Dutch enclaves of Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau

Abstract

Enclaves are defined as a fragment of one country totally surrounded by one other country. Currently, 259 enclaves exist in the world, all in Europe and Asia. Thirty of these enclaves, twenty-two Belgian and eight Dutch, cluster in and around a single village in the southern Netherlands, which is thus divided into the Belgian commune of Baarle-Hertog and the Dutch commune of Baarle-Nassau.

The 800-year long history of these enclaves is presented for the first time in English, detailing their origin c.1198, and explaining their survival despite numerous European wars and boundary changes. A description of the situation in the enclaves today is also given, together with the effect of the enclaves on everyday life and administration in the village. A large number of maps and photographs illustrate the paper, including a series of maps depicting every one of the 959 turning points of the boundaries of the 30 enclaves, showing all buildings and properties bisected by this most unusual boundary.