Portal:Belgium

The Belgium Portal

Flag Belgium
Location of Belgium within Europe

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the south, and the North Sea to the west. It covers an area of 30,689 km2 (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of 376/km2 (970/sq mi). Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, historically a somewhat larger region than the Benelux group of states, as it also included parts of northern France. The capital and largest metropolitan region is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges, Namur, and Leuven.

Belgium is a sovereign state and a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional and linguistic grounds. It is divided into three highly autonomous regions: the Flemish Region (Flanders) in the north, the Walloon Region (Wallonia) in the south, and the Brussels-Capital Region. Brussels is the smallest and most densely populated region, as well as the richest region in terms of GDP per capita. Belgium is also home to two main linguistic communities: the Flemish Community, which constitutes about 60 percent of the population, and the French Community, which constitutes about 40 percent of the population. A small German-speaking Community, making up around one percent of the population, exists in the East Cantons. The Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual in French and Dutch, although French is the majority language and lingua franca. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its complex system of governance, made up of six different governments.

Since the Middle Ages, Belgium's central location has meant that the area has been relatively prosperous, connected commercially and politically to its bigger neighbours. The country as it exists today was established following the 1830 Belgian Revolution, when it seceded from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which had incorporated the Southern Netherlands (which comprised most of modern-day Belgium) after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The name chosen for the new state is derived from the Latin word Belgium, used in Julius Caesar's "Gallic Wars", to describe a nearby region in the period around 55 BCE. Belgium has also been the battleground of European powers, earning the moniker "the Battlefield of Europe", a reputation reinforced in the 20th century by both world wars. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Recognized content - show another

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

The Seven Crystal Balls (French: Les 7 Boules de cristal) is the thirteenth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The story was serialised daily in Le Soir, Belgium's leading francophone newspaper, from December 1943 amidst the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. The story was cancelled abruptly following the Allied liberation in September 1944, when Hergé was blacklisted after being accused of collaborating with the occupying Germans. After he was cleared two years later, the story and its follow-up Prisoners of the Sun were then serialised weekly in the new Tintin magazine from September 1946 to April 1948. The story revolves around the investigations of a young reporter Tintin and his friend Captain Haddock into the abduction of their friend Professor Calculus and its connection to a mysterious illness which has afflicted the members of an archaeological expedition to Peru.

The Seven Crystal Balls was a commercial success and was published in book form by Casterman shortly after its conclusion, while the series itself became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. Critics have ranked The Seven Crystal Balls as one of the best Adventures of Tintin, describing it as the most frightening installment in the series. The story was adapted for the 1969 Belvision film Tintin and the Temple of the Sun, the 1991 Ellipse/Nelvana animated series The Adventures of Tintin, the 1992-3 BBC Radio 5 dramatisation of the Adventures, the 1997 video game Prisoners of the Sun, and a 2001 musical in Dutch and French versions. (Full article...)
List of recognized articles

More Did you know

Flag of the Brussels-Capital Region, featuring the iris

Belgium news

Wikinews Belgium portal
  • July 17: Floods in Europe kills over 150, hundreds reportedly missing
  • December 21: Prime Minister of Slovakia Igor Matovič tests positive for COVID-19
  • October 30: 22nd annual ILGA-Europe conference meets in Brussels: in pictures
  • August 9: Real Madrid agrees with Chelsea FC to sign goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois
  • July 16: FIFA World Cup 2018: Belgium beats England 2-0 to claim third place finish

Belgium Topics

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Things you can do

Featured pictures - show another

Featured pictures are displayed here, which represent the finest images on English Wikipedia.


Did you know (auto-generated)

  • ... that in the 1980s, international LGBT organizations organized protests in Europe and the Americas in support of Belgian teacher Eliane Morissens?
  • ... that to attend the 1915 Women at the Hague Congress, Eugénie Hamer and the Belgian delegates drove, were frisked, walked two hours, and took a train?
  • ... that Leon Stynen has been called one of Belgium's greatest architects of the 20th century?
  • ... that the façade of Hôtel Albert Ciamberlani has been described as one of the most beautiful Art Nouveau façades in Belgium?
  • ... that in the 1916 Declaration of Sainte-Adresse Britain, France and Russia committed to securing the political and economic independence of Belgium after the First World War?
  • ... that Belgian international association footballer Anaëlle Wiard, who started playing beach soccer in 2020, was the top scorer in a competition that year?

Anniversaries for March 19

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various Belgium-related articles on Wikipedia.

Related portals

Parent portals
Portals of neighbouring countries

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

  • Commons
    Free media repository
  • Wikibooks
    Free textbooks and manuals
  • Wikidata
    Free knowledge base
  • Wikinews
    Free-content news
  • Wikiquote
    Collection of quotations
  • Wikisource
    Free-content library
  • Wikiversity
    Free learning tools
  • Wikivoyage
    Free travel guide
  • Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus
Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Belgium&oldid=1116984529"