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Concept
Baarle-Hertog
Summary
Baarle-Hertog (ˌbaːrlə ˈɦɛrtɔx; Baerle-Duc, baʁl(ə)dyk) is a Flemish municipality of Belgium, much of which consists of a number of small Belgian enclaves fully surrounded by the Netherlands.
Parts of Baarle-Hertog are surrounded by the Dutch province of North Brabant, but it is part of the Belgian province of Antwerp. , it has a population of 2,935. The total area is .
Baarle-Hertog is noted for its complicated borders with Baarle-Nassau, Netherlands.
The border's complexity results from a number of 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 and other parts devolved to Breda. These distributions were ratified and clarified as a part of the border settlements agreed under the Treaty of Maastricht in 1843. The tight integration of the European Union and in particular the Schengen Agreement have made many of the practicalities of the situation substantially simpler since the 1990s.
In total, the municipality of Baarle-Hertog consists of 26 separate parcels of land. Four are linked to other Belgian municipalities, from west to east: the Baalbrugse Bemden, a strip of land along the Merkske, Zondereigen-Ginhoven and an area near Weelde-Station. The largest single section, Zondereigen (named after its main hamlet), is located within mainland Belgium on the contiguous Dutch-Belgian border (north of the town of Merksplas). In addition to this, there are 22 Belgian exclaves fully within the Netherlands. There are also seven Dutch enclaves within the Belgian exclaves (i.e., counter-exclaves) that are part of the territory of the Netherlands. Six of these Dutch enclaves are located within the largest Belgian exclave, and a seventh in the second-largest Belgian exclave. An eighth Dutch exclave is located near Ginhoven.
During the First World War, this situation meant that the Imperial German Army could not occupy these parts of Belgium without crossing the Netherlands, which the Dutch government did not allow.
Official source
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