Baarle-Hertog-Nassau: a Belgian-Dutch puzzle
Baarle-Hertog-Nassau is a town in the Netherlands, close to the border with Belgium. It is an administrative oddity "suspended" between the two countries. Property boundaries are often national borders at the same time, and the buildings ignore the course of the border in the most bizarre way. You will not see administrative puzzles like this anywhere else.
The town's national border forms a complicated pattern of enclaves. Scraps of one country are surrounded by the territory of the other: 22 Belgian "plots" in the Netherlands and 8 Dutch ones in Belgium. The Belgian name of the town is Baarle-Hertog, and the Dutch name is Baarle-Nassau. Within the two towns the border bears no relation to the street layout: in many places it runs down the middle or along the edge of a street, or crosses it at a completely random point. Nor are the buildings determined by the course of the Belgian-Dutch border: many buildings, private houses as well as shops, galleries, cafés and workshops, straddle the border. A building's nationality is determined by which side its front door is on, as shown by the house number plate, which is either in Dutch colours or bears a small Belgian flag. The town reportedly has a house whose front door lies exactly on the border. The authorities have tried many times to persuade the owner to move the door, but he refused, and the building now has two numbers: on one side of the door is the Belgian number 2, and on the other the Dutch 19. The main entrance determines which legislation a property and its residents are subject to. That decides which country they pay taxes to and which country's fire brigade will turn up in the event of a fire.
The history of the Baarle enclaves
The reasons why this Belgian-Dutch puzzle came about are lost in the mists of time. Baarle was first mentioned in documents in 992, and the problems began in 1198. That was when Count Dirk VII of Holland and Godfrey II van Schoten, Lord of Breda, came into conflict. Then came tangled ownership, mutual leasing of land and mixed marriages, and inherited plots passed from hand to hand, voluntarily or by force. With each generation the situation became more and more complicated. In 1648 it was decided that this peculiar "Gordian knot" needed to be formalised, and a description of the borders appeared in documents, yet the legal status remained muddled. The next important date is the moment the entire length of the national border between Belgium and the Netherlands was defined, which happened in 1843. Each successive kilometre of the border strip was marked with posts, each with its own number. It did not help much, because post 214 was placed before the town and post 215 beyond it, leaving the area in between undefined. Suffice it to say that this "hole in the border" lasted until 1974, and only in 1995 was agreement reached on the status of the last of the plots.
Smuggling and the smuggler's monument
Baarle is currently trying to get onto the UNESCO World Heritage list, arguing that it is unique. The fact that it lay on the border, and in a sense outside it, meant that many of its inhabitants made a living from....... smuggling. The Second World War was the heyday of smuggling, with crowds of "Pendlers" carrying goods across the border. Smuggling flourished until the creation of the free trade area in the European Union in 1993. Women carried butter from one side to the other, while men traded cattle. Statistics show that cows in Baarle could calve at a rate unheard of anywhere else in the world.... that was how the papers of smuggled animals were legalised. Buildings standing at the edges of the enclaves were used: goods were delivered on one side and sold on the other. Baarle does not deny this controversial chapter of its history. The town even has.... a monument to a smuggler.
General Maczek's division and the 28 days of Baarle
There is a third reason, an important one for Poles, to spend a few hours in Baarle-Hertog-Nassau. It is the story of its liberation from German occupation. On 30 September 1944 the Polish 1st Armoured Division under General Maczek entered the area. This wartime episode is known as the "28 days of Baarle", because that is how long it took to drive out the German troops. The occupying army defended itself by every means; it used special paratrooper units that attacked tanks behind the Polish lines. The tanks were often exposed to attacks from both front and rear as they moved. Throughout the siege the inhabitants hid in shelters they had built themselves. Often as many as a dozen people or more sat in a small dugout while the shelling went on.
In the town a monument with a commemorative plaque has been erected in honour of the Polish soldiers who fell liberating it. One of the streets in Baarle has been named Generaal Maczeklaan. There is also a commemorative plaque that forms part of the "Liberation Route" trail. For those who would like to explore the subject of the Polish soldiers' fighting in this area in more depth, I recommend the book "Marsz Czarnych Diabłów" ("March of the Black Devils") and a visit to the Maczek Museum.
The Belgian-Dutch puzzle that is Baarle-Hertog-Nassau is a phenomenon on a global scale. It takes top places in most rankings of bizarre international borders. Walking around the town, you can cross from one country to the other many times. Add its intriguing smuggling past and the fine wartime chapter written by Polish arms, and you have a reason to make a small detour and spend a few hours in such an astonishing place.
