A farmer moved a stone and accidentally changed it …

The border between Belgium and France it has been stable for 200 years. However, this situation changed as a result of a curious event: a Belgian farmer, upset by the placement of one of the stones that marked the historic territorial division, moved it so that his tractor could move more easily. As a result, the Belgian town of Erquelinnes, which lies along the 620-kilometer border with France, had increased by two meters, removing the territory from the French town of Bousignies-sur-Roc.

The border dispute arose when a historian walking along the dividing line noted that the stone had migrated slightly to France. The discovery of the man prompted an investigation to establish how the line was crossed, but far from hypotheses of conflict, reality ended up revealing an incident that brought a smile to officials in both countries.

“I was happy, my city was bigger ”, declared David Lavaux, mayor of Erquelinnes, to the French television channel TF1. For her part, the mayor of Bousignies-sur-Roc, Aurélie Welonek, told a French newspaper: “We should be able to avoid another border war”.

The border between France and present-day Belgium stretches over 620 km. It was officially established under the Treaty of Kortrijk, signed in 1820 after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo five years earlier. The stone dates back to 1819, when the border was first marked.

The Belgian authorities have indicated that they will ask the farmer to return the stone to its original location. If that does not happen, the case could end up in the Belgian Foreign Ministry, which is expected to convene a Franco-Belgian border commission, inactive since 1930. The man could also face a fine.