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The Belgium Portal
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 30,689km2 (11,849sqmi) and has a population of more than 11.5million, 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/sqmi). 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 federalconstitutional 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 autonomousregions: 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...)
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The Fastra II is a desktop supercomputer designed for tomography. It was built in late 2009 by the ASTRA (All Scale Tomographic Reconstruction Antwerp) group of researchers of the IBBT (Interdisciplinary institute for BroadBand Technology) VisionLab at the University of Antwerp and by Belgian computer shop Tones, in collaboration with Asus, a Taiwanese multinational computer product manufacturer, as the successor to the Fastra I (built in 2008).
The Fastra II was determined to be over three times faster than the Fastra I, which in turn was slightly faster than a 512-core cluster. However, because of the number of GPUs in the computer, the system initially suffered from several issues, including the system refusing to reboot and overheating due to a lack of space between the video cards. (Full article...)
An early 20th-century sail wagon, used in the sport of land sailing, in Brooklyn, New York. Land sailing is the act of moving across land in a wheeled vehicle powered by wind through the use of a sail. Although land yachts have existed since Ancient Egypt, the modern sport was born in Belgium in 1898.
The SNCB Class 77 is a class of 4-axle B'B' diesel-hydraulic locomotive designed for shunting and freight work. It was manufactured at the beginning of the 2000s by Siemens Schienenfahrzeugtechnik, and later by Vossloh at the Maschinenbau Kiel plant in Kiel, Germany, for the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB/NMBS).
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Louis-Marie Autissier
A self-portrait of Louis-Marie Autissier (1772–1830), a French-born Belgian portrait miniature painter. He is considered the founder of the Belgian school of miniature painting in the nineteenth century. Born at Vannes, in Brittany, he joined the French Revolutionary Army at Rennes in 1791. On leaving the army in 1795, Autissier went to Paris and trained his art by studying paintings at the Louvre. In 1796 he settled in Brussels, but continued to divide his time between Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Although he enjoyed great success in his career, serving as court painter to Louis Napoleon, French King of the Netherlands, and later to WillemI, Autissier died penniless.
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Stunt performer
Photo credit: Luc Viatour
Pyrotechnics stunt exhibition by "Giant Auto Rodéo", a Belgianstunt performer group. Stunt performers typically perform stunts for films or television programs. Stunts are sometimes rigged so that they look dangerous while still having safety mechanisms, but often they are as dangerous as they appear to be.
A ca. 1890–1900 photochrom print of Saint Nicholas' Church in Ghent, Belgium, one of the city's oldest and most prominent landmarks, dating back to the 13th century. The church's central tower served as an observation tower and carried the town bells until the neighboring belfry of Ghent was built.
Hélène Dutrieu, shown here in her aeroplane ca. 1911, was the fourth woman in the world (the first from Belgium) to earn a pilot's license and reputedly the first woman to carry passengers and to fly a seaplane. Besides being a pilot, she was a cycling world champion, stunt cyclist, stunt motorcyclist, automobile racer, wartime ambulance driver, and director of a military hospital.
Averbode Abbey is a Premonstratensian abbey in Averbode, in the municipality of Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, Belgium. The abbey was founded about 1134, suppressed in 1797, and re-established in 1834. The church is a synthesis of Baroque and Gothic architecture, with Renaissance ornamental details, and dominates the monastery complex; it was built between 1664 and 1672, to a design by the Antwerp architect Jan Van den Eynde II. This view of the church's interior shows the chancel, with the choir in the foreground and the sanctuary in the background.
The Graslei harbour is a popular destination in the Belgian city of Ghent. It is found in the city centre.
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Limburger cheese
Photo credit: Jon Sullivan/Pharaoh Hound
A plate of Limburger cheese and pumpernickel bread. Limburger originated from Limburg, Belgium, and is known for its strong odor, which is due in part to being fermented with the same bacteria partially responsible for human body odor.
Image 10
Sunrise, Inverness Copse
Drawing credit: Paul Nash
Sunrise, Inverness Copse, is a 1918 artwork by the British war artist Paul Nash. It shows a desolate Western Front landscape at Inverness Copse, near Ypres in Belgium; the sun is rising over the hills to reveal shattered trees standing among mounds of earth and an expanse of mud, pock-marked by shell-holes and devoid of vegetation. The pen-and-ink drawing, with watercolour and chalk, is held by the Imperial War Museum in London.
After a period serving in the Artists Rifles following the outbreak of the First World War, Nash was commissioned as an officer in the Hampshire Regiment. He was sent to Flanders in February 1917, but was invalided back to London in May 1917, a few days before his unit was nearly obliterated at the Battle of Messines. Nash became an official war artist and returned to the Ypres Salient, where he was shocked by the devastation caused by war. In six weeks on the Western Front, he completed what he called "fifty drawings of muddy places". He later used this drawing as the basis for his 1918 oil painting We Are Making a New World.
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Poeke Castle
Photo: Marc Ryckaert
Poeke Castle is a castle near Poeke, Belgium. Standing on 56 hectares of park, the castle is surrounded by water and is accessible through bridges at the front and rear of the building.
A photochrom from the late 19th century showing two peddlers selling milk from a dogcart near Brussels, Belgium. Dog-drawn carts were prohibited in Great Britain in the early 1900s on animal welfare grounds, but some still exist in France and Belgium. The modern-day sport of carting involves large dogs pulling carts.
Coin design credit: Kingdom of Belgium; photographed by the National Numismatic Collection
The Belgian franc was the currency of the Kingdom of Belgium from 1832 until 2002, when the euro was introduced. The Belgian mint was innovative, and in 1860, the country became the first to introduce coins made of cupronickel. A few years later, in 1865, Belgium formed the Latin Monetary Union with France, Switzerland and Italy (Greece joined the system later), which facilitated trade between the countries by setting standards by which gold and silver currency could be minted and exchanged.
This 40-franc gold coin was minted in 1835, and depicts LeopoldI, the first king of the Belgians following the country's independence in 1830, on the obverse. The coin is now part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
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Thorntonbank Wind Farm
Photo credit: Hans Hillewaert
Wind turbines belonging to the Thorntonbank Wind Farm located in the North Sea, 28km (17mi) off the coast of Belgium. Electricity generation started in early 2009, with an initial capacity of 30 MW, and that number is expected to rise to 300 MW by 2015. A 37km (23mi) 150 kV undersea cable connects the wind farm to the shore.
Image 15
V-2 rocket attack
Photo credit: Ingeldew, T3c, U.S. Army
The smouldering body of a boy killed by a V-2 rocket attack on the main intersection in Antwerp, Belgium, November 27, 1944, on the main Allied supply line to the Netherlands. The V-2, one of the German Vergeltungswaffen, was the first ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. Over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets in World War II.
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?
1839: the Treaty of London recognises the independence and neutrality of Belgium and defines its borders
1936: birth of Wilfried Martens, politician, Prime Minister of Belgium for nine times between 1979 and 1992, chairman of the European People's Party since 1992
Image 2A 1906 British Punch cartoon depicting Leopold II as a rubber vine entangling a Congolese man (from History of Belgium)
Image 3Walloon workers demonstration in Brussels in the winter of 1960 (from History of Belgium)
Image 4Belgian soldier taking cover by the corpses of dead hostages, November 1964 in Stanleyville during Operation Dragon Rouge (from History of Belgium)
Image 18The flag of the francophone pro-Nazi Rexist party (from History of Belgium)
Image 19The Sack of Antwerp in 1576, in which 17,000 people died. (from History of Belgium)
Image 20Paul-Henri Spaak, three-times Prime Minister and author of the Spaak Report, was a staunch believer in international bodies, including the ECSC and EEC (from History of Belgium)
Image 31Southern part of the Low Countries with bishopry towns and abbeys c. 7th century. Abbeys were the onset to larger villages and even some towns to reshape the landscape. (from History of Belgium)
Image 34Saint Servatius, bishop of Tongeren and one of the first known Christian figures in the region. 16th century reliquary. (from History of Belgium)