Frozen in time: foreign travellers and their national characterisation of Belgium (ca. 1750–ca. 1940)

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Belgian tourist offices continued to promote images of the nation that had originated during the Enlightenment. Foreign travellers often portrayed Belgian cities as preserved remnants of a glorious artistic and cultural past, while their landscapes were depicted as picturesque and untouched by modernity. These representations contrasted sharply with Belgium's reality as a centre of industrialisation, political reform, and imperial expansion. Despite this discrepancy, local actors—including antiquarian societies, tourism businesses, and civic leaders—embraced and reinforced these established tourist images. They promoted Belgium as a country seemingly “frozen in time” and encouraged restoration projects designed to enhance historical character and notions of authenticity. This article examines how foreign perceptions of Belgium (“hetero-images”) were adopted and transformed into local self-representations (“auto-images”). It explores how these images served national, ideological, and social agendas, revealing tourism as a key arena in which identities were negotiated and reimagined. By analysing the interaction between visitors, residents, entrepreneurs, and public authorities, the article shows how tourism shaped understandings of place, belonging, and national identity.