Baarle-Hertog & Baarle-Nassau: The European Town With 30 Enclaves and a Front-Door Tax Rule

Walk down the quiet brick streets of Baarle on the Dutch–Belgian frontier and you will see white painted crosses ("+B+" and "+NL+") running straight across parking spaces, restaurant tables, and front doors. Because of medieval land swaps dating back to 1198 between the Lords of Breda and the Dukes of Brabant, 22 Belgian enclaves (Baarle-Hertog) sit inside the Netherlands (Baarle-Nassau), which in turn hold 7 Dutch counter-enclaves inside them.

When the Treaty of Maastricht finalized the boundary in 1843, surveyors discovered that dozens of houses stood directly on top of the line. To solve the legal nightmare of which country taxed and governed each family, both nations enacted the famous "Front Door Rule" (Voordeurregel): a building’s nationality is determined solely by the country in which its main front door stands.

Every house number plaque displays either a Belgian or Dutch flag next to the digits—and at least one family once moved their front door a few meters down the wall when tax and closing-hour rules favored the neighboring country.