About Belgium

Following is a list about interesting and fun facts about Belgium. This list will grow over time, if you would like to add something, feel free to post a comment!

Fun Belgian Facts You Didn’t Know About

Beer

Trappist
Between 1997 and 2005, Belgium was the only country where Trappist beer was brewed. The only Trappist brewery outside of Belgium (La Trappe in Holland) had lost its “Authentic Trappist Product” label because the biggest part of the income didn’t go to social goals.

Kinds of beer
About 400 different kinds of beers are brewed in Belgium, when you consider the temporary and limited edition beers there are so many you can only guess the number. (Wikipedia guesses 1000.)

Movies

Stijn Helsen
The Belgian designer Stijn Helsen designed the costumes for Pirates of the Caribbean and the spider man suit for Spider Man III.

Place Names

Waterloo
This City in Belgium where Napoleon was defeated in 1815, has 124 cities and places named after it worldwide. Where under the Waterloo station in London.

Language

Official languages and their regions
Belgium consists of four linguistic areas: Dutch is the official language in Flanders, in Wallonia it is French, German in the East Cantons and in Brussels both French and Dutch are official languages.

Strict linguistic laws
In the bilingual region Brussels, Dutch and French have to be treated equal. For example:
In the train station Brussels North the announcements are first made in Dutch and then in French, in Brussels south first in French and afterwards in Dutch and what about Brussels central station you think? Well, there the order changes every year

Sports

Olympic Flag
During the olympic games of 1920 in Antwerp, the olympic flag was flown for the first time ever.