The Top 10: Enclaves
Stewart Wood, the Labour peer, commented on an “intriguing oasis of Italian soil, well inside Swiss territory, site of Europe’s largest casino”, as he passed through on the train from Milan to Lugano, providing the first entry on this list.
1. Campione d’Italia. When the canton of Ticino chose to become part of the Swiss Confederation in 1798, Campione chose to remain part of Lombardy, a decision confirmed by referendum in 1814. During the wars of Italian unification, it tried to join Switzerland but the Swiss refused, not wanting to be drawn into Italian disputes.
2. Baarle, a town in the Netherlands, parts of which are Belgium (map above). The Dutch parts are called Baarle-Nassau and the Belgian bits Baarle-Hertog. Since the rationalisation of the India-Bangladesh border last year abolished Dahala Khagrabari, the world’s only third-order enclave (a piece of India inside a piece of Bangladesh inside a piece of India inside Bangladesh), Baarle’s second-order enclaves are as complicated as it gets – there are pockets of the Netherlands inside some of the Belgian enclaves. The border is so complicated, said Robert Kaye, “they operate a front-door rule where the country of your front door determines which law applies”.
3. Nahwa, a village, part of Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates, which is an enclave inside an enclave of Omani territory in the UAE (below). Another second-order enclave, nominated by Tim Wallace, Graham Kirby, Alasdair Brooks and Pablo Byrne.
4. Vennbahn, a railway (the rails now gone) that was assigned to Belgium by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and which created five German enclaves in Belgium. There used to be a Belgian counter-enclave, “a traffic island inside a three-way German road intersection near Fringshaus”, until 1949, according to Wikipedia. Nominated by Philip Mann and Neil Marshall.
5. Busingen, a German town surrounded by Switzerland. Suggested by Philip Mann and Graham Smith.
6. Llívia, part of Spain in France. According to Thateddguy, the “Treaty of the Pyrenees, 1659, gave all villages north of the Pyrenees to France but Llívia was a town...” Also nominated by Geof Walker and John Peters.
7. Artsvashen. I hesitated over a nomination for the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, but Artsvashen is an enclave of Armenia in Azerbaijan that is internationally recognised. Sofulu and Karki, meanwhile, are enclaves of Azerbaijan in Armenia.
8. Sankovo-Medvezhye, Russian enclave in Belarus, now uninhabited because of contamination by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion in 1986. Thanks to Anna Rhodes.
9. Sarvan, an enclave of Tajikistan surrounded by Uzbekistan in the Fergana Valley. On the other side of the valley, Uzbekistan has five enclaves in Tajikistan. “The post-Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan have inherited a particularly complex set of borders,” said Alasdair Brooks.
10. The North-West Angle, a bit of Minnesota in Canada. From Jonn Elledge. A 1783 mapping error left a chunk of US territory in Canada. Not completely surrounded by Canada, but cut off from the US by a lake. Similar applies at the other end of the 49th parallel border between the US and Canada to Point Roberts, a cape south of Vancouver that belongs to the US.
There are several historical examples of enclaves of English and Scottish counties, but things were complicated enough already.
An honourable mention for David Landon Cole, for Bir Tawil, between Egypt and Sudan: not an enclave but a wedge of territory that neither state wants. And for Gs Workbench, who mentioned the world’s largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island, an unnamed four-acre island in arctic Canada.
Next week: Best Parentheses in Literature, such as: “My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three...” Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita.
Coming soon: Bands Named After Other Band’s Lyrics, starting with the Rolling Stones, originally the Rollin’ Stones, from “Rollin’ Stone”, a Muddy Waters song
Your suggestions, and ideas for future Top 10s, in the comments please, or to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk
