Belgium
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg and is one of the founding and core members of the European Union. Belgium has a population of over ten million people, in an area of around 30,000 square kilometres .
Straddling the cultural boundary between Romance and Germanic Europe, Belgium is linguistically divided. It has two main languages: ca. 60% of its population , mainly in the region Flanders, speak Dutch (while Belgians often refer to it as Flemish), while French is spoken by 40%.
Belgium is well-known for its fine art and architecture. The region corresponding to today's Belgium has seen the flourishing of major artistic movements that have had tremendous influence over European art.