Geography
The geography of the historic County of Flanders only partially overlaps with present-day Flanders. The land covered by the county is spread out over:
- Belgium:
- two of the five Flemish provinces: West-Flanders and East-Flanders
- part of the Flemish province Antwerp: the land of Bornem
- part of the Walloon province Hainaut: Tournaisis and the region around Moeskroen (that belonged to West-Flanders until 1962)
- France:
- French Flanders (in the Nord departement)
- the French westcorner: the region around Dunkirk, Bergues and Bailleul, an area where Dutch used to be the main language
- Lilloise Flanders, where the Picard language, closely related to French, was spoken.
- Artois (in the Pas-de-Calais department): removed from Flanders in 1191 and created as independent county in 1237
- French Flanders (in the Nord departement)
- Netherlands: Zeelandic Flanders, a region between Belgium and the Western Scheldt, in the southern part of the province of Zeeland
Read more about this topic: County Of Flanders
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
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—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)