Enclavedorp Baarle-Hertog-Nassau
Baarle-Hertog-Nassau may possibly well be the most remarkable village in the world. The reason: in the village there are at least 30 pieces of Belgium and the Netherlands interwoven. Of the 64 enclaves in the world, almost half of them are located here!
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Baarle-Hertog-Nassau may possibly well be the most remarkable village in the world. The reason: in the village there are at least 30 pieces of Belgium and the Netherlands interwoven. Of the 64 enclaves in the world, almost half of them are located here! Baarle-Hertog-Nassau is not located precisely on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium, with a straight border running down one street. Rather, the border runs criss-cross through roads, gardens and houses. There is even a house with both a Dutch house number and a Belgian one.
Come visit and be amazed in the ‘World Capital of Enclaves’ …
Special and unique
This unique enclave situation is located …
Baarle-Hertog-Nassau may possibly well be the most remarkable village in the world. The reason: in the village there are at least 30 pieces of Belgium and the Netherlands interwoven. Of the 64 enclaves in the world, almost half of them are located here! Baarle-Hertog-Nassau is not located precisely on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium, with a straight border running down one street. Rather, the border runs criss-cross through roads, gardens and houses. There is even a house with both a Dutch house number and a Belgian one.
Come visit and be amazed in the ‘World Capital of Enclaves’ …
Special and unique
This unique enclave situation is located in the heart of the Benelux, in the border area of the Netherlands and Belgium, in the triangle of Tilburg, Breda and the Belgian Turnhout. An enclave is a piece of territory that is completely surrounded by the territory of another country. What is unique about Baarle-Hertog-Nassau is that it does not have just one enclave but thirty of them! Twenty-two are in Belgium’s Baarle-Hertog and eight in the Netherlands’ Baarle-Nassau. And, to make it even more unusual: of those eight enclaves in Baarle-Nassau, seven of those are sub or counter enclaves in Belgian enclaves!
Guided tour
Is your head spinning yet? Don’t worry: during an informative tour, a guide will explain everything in great detail. You will pass extraordinary (cultural) historic places and, logically, cross the border at various times. You can tell if you are in Belgium or the Netherlands by the flags next to the house numbers. Something that quite impressed this English-speaking visitor: “Such an amazing place, a unique crosspoint where borders play only a formal role.”
If you would rather go out on your own, follow the Enclave Experience route, which takes you past twelve enclave signs in the village centre and is seven kilometres long. It is fun to follow, whether on foot or on the bicycle!