Baarle-Nassau

Baarle is the most complicated land border in the world. Medieval land transactions between the Duke of Brabant and the lords of Breda left a patchwork that was never tidied, and when the border was fixed in 1843 the parcels were written into the treaty as they stood: the town contains twenty-two exclaves of Belgium inside the Netherlands, and inside seven of those are counter-exclaves of the Netherlands, plus one further fragment. The line runs through houses, gardens and shops, marked in the pavement with crosses and NL/B plates, and front doors carry the flag of whichever country the door is in - which matters, because the door determines the address and therefore which law, tax regime and shop-opening rules apply. The town has two mayors, two councils and two of most things, and it works.

What you actually see

• Twenty-two Belgian enclaves - and seven Dutch counter-enclaves inside them.
• The border in the pavement - crosses and NL/B plates crossing streets and doorsteps.
• Flags on front doors - the door deciding which country a house belongs to.
• Two of everything - two mayors, two councils, two administrations in one town.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The oddity is administrative and takes a map to appreciate; on the ground it is an ordinary Brabant town with markers in the pavement. Shops follow two sets of opening rules, so what is open varies by which side of a street you are on.

Nearby

Turnhout is south in Belgium; Tilburg is north.