Wallonia is the French-speaking southern part of Belgium, with around 3.7 million inhabitants, bordering France, Luxembourg, and Germany. In the past, Wallonia was considered the engine of Belgium, one of the key centers of the Industrial Revolution. However, with the decline of heavy industry in the 20th century, a profound structural transformation began, the consequences of which are still visible today.
The Image of Wallonia
Internationally, Wallonia stands in the shadow of the other parts of the country. While cities like Brussels, Bruges, and other…
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Europe is full of borders. Many of them have become invisible, others run along rivers or mountain ranges and seem almost logical. And then there is Belgium – a country where borders sometimes run through living rooms, states disappear, and gas stations determine which side you are on.
Anyone who engages with this will not find clear lines, but stories. Stories of compromises, coincidences, and surprisingly long-lasting historical decisions. Belgium is not a country you simply “pass through”. It is a country you understand in… read more 
Belgium has one of the densest inland waterway networks in the world. The main routes can be broadly divided into three categories: the “major arteries”, connecting canals, and scenic waterways used primarily for tourism.
the major Arteries
Scheldt
The Scheldt rises in Gouy in northern France and flows into the North Sea near Vlissingen in the Netherlands, after about 350 kilometers. In Belgium it is the most important waterway, the port of Antwerp is the second largest in Europe. The river also flows through Ghent… 
Note: In this blog post, I use AI-generated photos – but nowhere else on this website. (At least not intentionally: most of the photos on visitbelgium.net are mine, but a few still come from Adobe Stock, where it’s not always clear whether AI was involved.)
AI Photos
Nowadays, it’s possible to create excellent “photos” using AI. In the tourism sector, however, AI images tend to fall somewhere between absurdly bad, kitschy, and very good – but often flawed in detail. Ultimately, they’re a complete no-go… 
Here’s a list of the 50 most internationally well-known Belgians who were born in Belgium (therefore, figures such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder or Peter Paul Rubens are not included). The list is sorted by year of birth.
Ambiorix
(1st century BC, Tongeren)
Leader of the Eburones tribe who resisted Julius Caesar’s Roman legions; a symbol of Belgian independence.
Jan van Eyck
(1390-1441, Maaseik)
Early Netherlandish painter and pioneer of oil painting, best known for the Ghent Altarpiece.
Johannes Ockeghem
(1410-1497, Saint-Ghislain)
Composer of the… 
Is Belgium really the “flat land” sung about in Jacques Brel’s famous chanson, the image that many people conjure up when they think of the small state in Western Europe?
The answer is – like so often – a clear “yes and no”.
In his song, Brel mainly evokes West Flanders, with its wide plains along the coast and inland, where fields, canals, and ruler-straight roads dominate the landscape. There, the image of flat expanses is indeed accurate. But for the whole country, the description… 
A question that repeatedly causes confusion: How many inhabitants does Brussels have? The figures range from around 200,000 to 1,250,000 – from a small major city to a metropolis. The answer is simple, yet also confusing and quite curious. Typically Belgian, in fact:
The districts of Brussels have retained their independence and, to this day, remain individual municipalities, even though they have grown seamlessly into one continuous city. To come straight to the point: 1,250,000 inhabitants is “correct”.
City of Brussels
The City of Brussels… 
This topic often causes confusion. It can generally be very simplified: Belgium lies between the Netherlands in the north and France in the south. The language border between Dutch and French runs horizontally through the center of Belgium. The capital Brussels, in the center of the country, is bilingual.
Capital (Brussels): Belgian French and Belgian Dutch
As the Belgian capital, centrally located in Belgium, Brussels (1.2 million inhabitants) is officially bilingual. Around 80% use Belgian French in everyday life, 20% Belgian Dutch.
North Belgium (Flanders):… 
Large countries are characterized by their diverse landscapes and cities with distinct personalities. Belgium, however, is small: driving from north to south (Antwerp to Arlon) takes about 2.75 hours, while crossing from east to west (Eupen to Ostend) takes roughly 2.5 hours.
Despite its compact size of 30,000 square kilometers, Belgium offers an extraordinary variety: from fine sandy beaches along the North Sea coast, through the flat but water-rich region of Flanders, to the rolling hills of Wallonia, which are carved by deep river valleys.… 
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© VisitBelgium.net
© VisitBelgium.net
© VisitBelgium.net
© VisitBelgium.net
