Belgian Enclave H8

local name: Boschcoven - De Kastelein - De Oordelsche Straat

Origin: 1198
Number of residents: 148 (17 Oct. 2016)
Surface: 418.781 m²
Circumference: 5,187 km

H8 is the second largest Belgian enclave. Two protrusions of H8 cause the boundary to jump four times over a stretch of 150 metres: from the Netherlands to Belgium, the Netherlands, Belgium and back to the Netherlands. At the time, some livestock farmers held a barn or field in the other land, making their cattle business financially quite profitable.

In attempts to fight off epidemics such as avian influenza, national governments take protection measures ignorant of the complex enclave puzzle of Baarle. In 2003 livestock farmers in the Belgian enclaves found themselves unable to get food from the Belgian mainland to their farms. Equally, twelve Dutch farmers can’t re-supply as the enclave borders may not be crossed. To deal with this, both communal authorities press for a so called neutral zone in the centre of Baarle as a rigorous compliance with the national measures in the end would seriously harm the farmers concerned.

This Belgian enclave holds the Dutch counter-enclave N7 (which is an enclave within an enclave belonging to another state).