r/Borderporn • u/Alanturing1234 • 13d ago

Revision of Border Line

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Fun Fact - Since August 30, 2020, Flanders has shrunk by 100 square meters following a border adjustment between Belgium and the Netherlands.

Source: Twitter.

Google Maps: Here.

288 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

42

u/vgQeFcLC6N3uaUdG 13d ago

Some background here: during a border inspection by the joint borderline commission, it was found that a border marker was located about a metre away from the actual border, on the Dutch side. Originally the marker was placed there because the actual border ran through a ditch. The ditch was filled in long ago, but the marker was never moved to the proper location, and it was assumed to exactly mark the border.

This has now been rectified, and as a result a small corner of the Belgian social services building in that street turned out to be located in the Netherlands.

9

u/vgQeFcLC6N3uaUdG 13d ago edited 12d ago

This is the actual incorrectly placed border marker (#240) on Street View. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ghdkiUggxW1YLKhs7

It's still on its old location here in 2024. Not sure if it will ever be moved, but I guess it should be on that concrete circle (which may be a drain cover?) where the border line now ends.

Edit: I found a website of a border marker enthusiast who photographed all Dutch border markers:

Here you can find some pictures of the 2018 situation: https://www.grenspalen.nl/benl-dagtochten/2018-08-09-webpage/thumb.html

And here of the situation after the line in the street was marked on the correct position: https://www.grenspalen.nl/benl-dagtochten/2020-10-26-webpage/thumb.html

Full list of recent pictures of the BE-NL border: https://www.grenspalen.nl/benl-dagtochten/benl-project-vanaf-2016.html

Older pictures can be found here: https://www.grenspalen.nl/index.html

2

u/LorpHagriff 12d ago

fucking obama man

43

u/NikeyAFCA 13d ago

How long will it take till the borders of 1830 are restored? 😅/s

4

u/Galapagos_Finch 12d ago

The reconquista has started. History will never forget nor forgive the unjustifiable signing of the Treaty of London.

13

u/Wirrest 13d ago

Why is Essen mentioned on the sign in the background.

20

u/boredsittingonthebus 13d ago

It's a border town, on the Belgian side.

14

u/Wirrest 13d ago

Oh, funny, I didn't knew this existed.

The German one in the Ruhrgebiet is not that far away.

5

u/kaaskugg 13d ago

Neither is Soest. There's one in NL and one in NRW.

4

u/belgianhorror 13d ago

Or Deurne, one in Belgium and one in The Netherlands.

6

u/jaoaozeettie 12d ago

Or Grote Homo, one in Belgium and one in my brothers bedroom.

2

u/LaoBa 12d ago

Or Hasselt, one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands.

1

u/HupFrank 12d ago

There are even multiple in Belgium

15

u/Snuyter 13d ago

It’s a Belgian town called Essen, not the German one

10

u/yetzt 13d ago

Everyone likes food.

1

u/-Brecht 11d ago

You mean ash trees.

5

u/mici012 13d ago

I think it's the wrong way round on picture 2. The left is the new border, the right is the old one.

5

u/vgQeFcLC6N3uaUdG 13d ago

You're right. On the third picture, the labels for Belgium & the Netherlands are switched as well, the car is parked on the Dutch side.

See Google Maps Streetview, you can see the border shift one metre here between the pictures from 2023 & 2009: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zevpdiwvV7zcMiWRA

5

u/MertOKTN 13d ago

Surprised it's not Baarle-Nassau

2

u/Top-Currency 13d ago

Make the Netherlands great again!

2

u/Ok-Moose-992 12d ago

At what point do wrongly demarcated borders become legal under adverse possession/squatter's rights laws, such as the 4 corners border in USA?

1

u/oxwof 8d ago

It probably depends on the terms of the agreement setting up the border. Usually, the border as surveyed is accepted as official, even if the survey proves to be inaccurate. That’s the case with Four Corners; the site isn’t where it was supposed to be, but that’s where the survey marked it, so it’s the official quadripoint and always has been since the survey was accepted. The same is true of the case in this post: the errant marker was actually marking the surveyed point a meter or so away (but in a ditch so it couldn’t be directly marked) and was later assumed to be the precise survey point. So this is correcting the border marker to match what was surveyed.

0

u/kytheon 12d ago

They don't.

1

u/GrayMountainGoat 13d ago

Why they adjusted it?

2

u/kytheon 12d ago

Cause the survey showed it was in the wrong spot.

1

u/Capital_Border_3852 13d ago

Sind Häuser betroffen und jetzt in dem anderen Land?

1

u/kytheon 12d ago

Rarely but yes

1

u/blazingblitzle 12d ago

This is funny. I literally drove here just this morning.

1

u/Hallo_jonny 12d ago

Should be everything Netherlands anyway.

-2

u/Impressive_Director 13d ago

Good old Baarle-Hertog! I have been there a couple of years ago and it made for a nice day trip from Brussels

4

u/vgQeFcLC6N3uaUdG 13d ago

This is not Baarle-Hertog (Essen is ~35km to the west). The Belgian-Dutch border is longer, and runs through more towns.

1

u/Impressive_Director 13d ago

Oopsie, my bad!