Baarle: The Town Where Moving Your Front Door Can Change Countries

Thirty enclaves turn Baarle into a real-world border maze: 22 Belgian pockets sit inside the Netherlands, while eight Dutch pockets include seven enclaves nested inside Belgian territory. The boundary is marked across roads and pavements, and a building's country is identified by the location of its front door. 1

That rule once produced a wonderfully practical fix. After a 1995 survey placed an elderly Belgian resident's front door in the Netherlands, the door and a neighboring window were swapped so her home remained Belgian. Another Baarle doorway lies directly on the border and carries both Belgian and Dutch house numbers. 23

The patchwork began with medieval land divisions and remained unresolved as an exact international border until 1995. 4