The border that cuts houses in half

Baarle looks like an ordinary town in the southern Netherlands — until you look down. White crosses on the pavement mark where the Belgian border runs. And it runs everywhere: through streets, gardens, cafés and private homes. The Belgian municipality, Baarle-Hertog, consists of 22 enclaves embedded in Dutch territory; and inside some of them sit Dutch plots in turn.

The origin is medieval: centuries of land sales and swaps between feudal lords left behind a jigsaw that nobody ever bothered to tidy up. When Belgium and the Netherlands went their separate ways in the nineteenth century, they inherited the mess — and decided to keep it.

And the houses split in two? A delightful rule applies: your country is wherever your front door is. For years, some shops moved their entrance a few metres to trade under whichever laws suited them best.

Some borders divide. This one mostly decorates.