Portal:Belgium/Did you know

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...that for over a hundred years, the subject of the painting now identified as the Martyrdom of Saints Crispin and Crispinian (close-up pictured) by Aert van den Bossche was a mystery?
...that the Compromise of Nobles was drafted in the Sablon in Brussels, which would later be the site of the execution of 18 of its signatories?
...that Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave creates life-size, painted paper sculptures of wedding gowns, shoes, needlework lace, and strings of pearls?

...that Lutgardis (pictured) is reported as having levitated and dripped blood from her forehead when entranced?
...that the Renaissance composer Cornelis Verdonck wrote the only known motet written to be performed on the back of an elephant?
...that one of the patrons of The Ypres League was Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, whose son, Prince Maurice of Battenberg, had died in World War I at the First Battle of Ypres?

...that the irises of Saint-Géry Island became a symbol of Brussels, and the iris is now on the flag of the Brussels-Capital Region (pictured)?
...that Belgian artist Henry van de Velde was one of the leading representatives of the Art Nouveau movement?
...that the 2007–08 Belgian political crisis led to popular demands for the partition of Belgium?

...that Belgium's sillon industriel (steelmaking pictured) was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe?
...that the origins of the baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège, usually dated 1107–1118, have been much disputed by art historians?
...that Charles de Visscher, a Belgian judge of the International Court of Justice, was orphaned at age twelve?

...that Desiderius Erasmus nicknamed his academic opponent Jacobus Latomus (pictured) "Hephestion," a reference to Latomus's distinct limp?
...that the Free Belgian Forces fought in several theaters during World War II, including Great Britain, East Africa, the Mediterranean, and northwestern Europe?
...that the three drunken Wierix brothers of Antwerp influenced Ethiopian iconography?

...that the covering of the Senne River (construction pictured) created the major boulevards of Brussels?
...that the Belgian Government in London during World War II was described as a "rump"?
...that of the vast Silva Carbonaria, "the charcoal forest" that stretched from south of Brussels to the Rhine in Merovingian days, 44.21 km² still remains in the Forêt de Soignes/Zoniënwoud?

...that paling in 't groen (pictured) is a Flemish dish of eel in a green herb sauce?
...that Leopold II's mistress Caroline Lacroix was so loathed by the Belgian public that on one occasion, her carriage was stoned in Brussels?
...that a Bruges building dating to 1399 now houses a museum dedicated to fries?

...that the Army of Flanders (Siege of Breda (1624) pictured) was the longest standing army in early modern history, operating from 1567 to 1706?
...that, during half a millennium, the Croÿ family produced two cardinals, seven bishops, nine field marshals, twenty generals, and thirty two knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece?
...that Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) cemetery in Belgium was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and contains the grave of the playwright Alan Bennett's uncle?

...that the bombardment of Brussels by French troops (ruins pictured) in 1695 was later described by Napoleon Bonaparte as being "as barbarous as it was useless?"
...that until the French Revolution, the Belgian village of Moorsel was divided into two distinct sections?
...that the installation of an artificial Christmas tree in Brussels prompted an online petition against it with 25,000 signatures?

...that Belgium's Carnival of Binche (pictured), which features a "battle of confetti", is the culmination of a build-up lasting 50 days?
...that Belgian avant-garde singer Catherine Jauniaux has been described as a "one-woman orchestra" and a "human sampler"?
...that after her European Parliamentary career, Anne André-Léonard served as the Assistant Commissioner for Belgium at the World Expo in Zaragoza from 2006 to 2008?