Contemporary Belgian politics often seems too complex for its good, but the political landscape in the Middle Ages and the early modern period could have been even more bizarre. Belgium was once a ...

On the last Friday of May, a military plane touched down outside Brussels and a man in a dark suit ran out, leaping into the arms of family members. The Belgian aid worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, was ...

Thirteen-year-old Leo is on the defensive. He has just been asked by a classmate in his new secondary school if he and his best friend Remi are “together”. The boys spent an idyllic summer running ...

Belgium may be divided politically and linguistically, but one thing all regions and communities can agree on is the beloved national biscuit: Speculoos. Much like beer, chocolate, waffles or fries, ...

Since 1999, Vladimir Putin has held an ever-tighter grip over Russia. Despite waves of protest against his corruption, suppression of the media, and human rights, the Russian strongman is unflinching ...

Described as short and plump, plainly dressed Sister Godfrieda did not stand out, apart from the fact that she wore a nun’s habit. But after she was arrested for a series of murders in the picturesque ...

From his home in the rural Flemish municipality of Oudsbergen, Raymond Behr shows his collection of medals. At just 17 years old, Behr was one of the 3,172 soldiers sent by Belgium to help defend ...

On a grey Belgian spring day, people in dark suits hurry up and down Antwerp’s Hoveniersstraat carrying black leather briefcases. Some pause to talk with one another for a moment, but in the city’s ...

Historian Herman Van Goethem, rector of Antwerp University and a former director of Kazerne Dossin, the Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in Mechelen, spent 14 years of his life writing a book about ...

A 24-year-old Belgian young man has spoken out after being violently assaulted while walking home from a winter event in Brasschaat, near Antwerp, saying he was left with facial injuries and a broken ...

It is fair to say that Laurent Simons is special. Last year, the 12-year-old child prodigy received his bachelor's degree in physics with distinction from the University of Antwerp, after completing ...

All of Brussels can be seen as an open-air museum with streets, squares and parks adorned by historical statues and memorials, mostly meant to represent and even glorify Belgium’s past. But for a long ...