The geographical centre of Flanders and three-province point

The geographical centre of Flanders and three-province point

At the beginning of February 1999, the students of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University of Leuven (Professor Theodoor Van Der Waeteren) calculated that the geographical centre of Flanders is located in Opdorp. Konkreet means that if you were to cut out the map of Flanders, you would keep the whole of Flanders in balance if you keep your finger under Opdorp

Its coordinates are: 51° 2′ 16" N, 4° 14′ 26" E (Lambert coordinates: X = 140 882 meters Y = 192 297 meters).

The exact location was in a corn field in the Colostrum that was owned by farmer Karel De Keyzer. However, he did not want to take into account the pole that indicates the center when plowing.

The Buggenhout municipality bought a piece of land of 240 m ² at 300 meters from the exact center. The sculpture with the appropriate name Het Middelpunt by the Opdorp artist Roger Van Den Eede was unveiled there in 2003.

The fact that this is the geographical centre is not really a coincidence. After all, Opdorp also forms a three-province point of the three most centrally located Flemish provinces: East Flanders, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp. As a Buggenhout borough, Opdorp is situated in the north-eastern tip of the province of East Flanders, bordering Lippelo and Sint-Amands (province of Antwerp) and Malderen (Londerzeel/province of Flemish Brabant).

Jurgen Vermeulen