A Belgian landowner risked triggering an international incident by moving an old stone boundary marker that has denoted his country’s border with France since the 1820 Treaty of Kortrijk.
According to the mayor of the Belgian town of Erquelinnes, David Lavaux, the landowner had underestimated the implications of moving the historic marker back just over two meters.
“Obviously, that increased the size of his property,” the mayor told AFP. “What he didn’t realize was that the border had been precisely geo-located in 2019, so it was easy to prove that it had been moved.”
The discreet landgrab was spotted around a month ago by members of an association of history enthusiasts fro…
Keep on reading: Belgian landowner accidentally occupies French soil