Our village Baarle is ONE village consisting of two different municipals; the Dutch municipal of Baarle-Nassau and the Belgian municipal of Baarle-Hertog. The Belgian Baarle-Hertog consists of 22 enclaves completely surrounded by the Dutch territory of Baarle-Nassau. Baarle-Hertog is in fact the sum of all the Belgian enclaves in Dutch territory.

Besides the Belgian enclaves, Baarle-Nassau has one (1) Dutch enclave in Belgium. Furthermore Baarle-Nassau has seven (7) exclaves (sometimes called sub-enclaves) embodied in the Belgian enclaves. All together Baarle has 30 enclaves. It's the most puzzled village in the world. A colleague-journalist called it once: 'Bordering to the ridiculous'

On the double!

The double identity of Baarle caused some strange effects

So we have the following double:
2 mayors
2 townhalls
2 municipality councils
2 churches
2 firebrigades
2 fire stations
2 postoffices
2 telephone networks
2 electricity networks
2 sporting grounds
2 farmacies
2 industrial areas
2 tax systems

BUT we have:
1 waterworks (Dutch)
1 waste water system (Dutch-Belgian)
1 library (Dutch-Belgian)
1 TV cablenetwork (Belgian)
1 gas network (Dutch)
1 community center (Dutch-Belgian)

Map of the territory of Baarle and the situation of the enclaves

Map of enclaves in the center of Baarle