1859 in Belgium

Events in the year 1859 in Belgium.

Incumbents

 * Monarch: Leopold I
 * Head of government: Charles Rogier

Events

 * Fabrique d'armes Émile et Léon Nagant established in Liège
 * Railway line from Namur to Arlon completed
 * 18 April – Five-year commercial treaty with France (1854) extended for two more years.
 * 14 June – Partial legislative elections
 * 19 July – Auguste Orts replaces Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen as speaker of the Chamber of Representatives.
 * 9 August – Modeste Decroix (in religion Fr François) and Louis-Joseph Miroux (in religion Br François), both of Scourmont Priory, condemned to twenty years and ten years hard labour respectively on multiple counts of sexual assault.
 * 31 August – Belgian Chamber of Representatives votes to fortify Antwerp as a National Redoubt.
 * 3 November – Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic University of Leuven.
 * 24 November – Breve of Pope Pius IX congratulating the Catholic University of Leuven on its twenty-fifth anniversary.

Art and architecture

 * Paintings
 * Alfred Stevens, Will you come out with me, Fido?

Publications

 * Periodicals
 * Almanach de poche de Bruxelles (Brussels, Tircher)
 * Annales de pomologie belge et étrangère, vol. 7.
 * Annuaire de l'Académie royale de Belgique, vol. 25
 * Annuaire de la noblesse de Belgique, vol. 13, edited by Isidore de Stein d'Altenstein
 * Annuaire statistique et historique belge, vol. 6, edited by Auguste Scheler
 * La Belgique, 8
 * La Belgique Horticole, vol. 9.
 * Bibliographie de la Belgique, ou Catalogue général de l'imprimerie et de la librairie belges, vol. 22 (Brussels, Charles Muquardt)
 * Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles (Brussels, Hayez).
 * Bulletin et annales de l'Académie d'archéologie de Belgique, vol. 6
 * Collection de précis historiques, vol. 8, edited by Edouard Terwecoren S.J.
 * Journal de l'armée belge, vol. 17
 * Journal d'horticulture pratique de la Belgique
 * Le Moniteur Belge
 * Recueil consulaire contenant les rapports commerciaux
 * Recueil des lois et arrêtés royaux de la Belgique, vol. 11


 * Reports and monographs
 * XIVe exposition nationale et triennale de Gand. Salon de 1859. Notice sur les tableaux et objets d'arts, exposés à l'ancienne église des PP. Dominicains (Ghent, Vanderhaeghen)
 * Charles Bormann, The Shrapnel Shell in England and in Belgium with Some Reflections on the Use of this Projectile in the Late Crimean War; a Historico-technical Sketch (Brussels, Librarie européenne)
 * Jules Malou, La question monétaire (Brussels, 1859)
 * Edmond Speelman, Belgium Marianum: Histoire du culte de Marie en Belgique y compris l'ancien territoire de Lille, de Douai, de Cambrai, etc.: calendrier belge de la Sainte Vierge (Pairs and Tournai, Casterman)
 * Jean Stecher, Flamands et Wallons (Liège, F. Renard)


 * Literature
 * Frans de Cort, Liederen, tweede reeks (Antwerp)

Births

 * 10 January – Léon Du Bois, organist (died 1935)
 * 19 January – Marie Nizet, writer (died 1922)
 * 2 April – Léon Rom, colonial officer (died 1924)
 * 17 April – Charles van den Eycken, painter (died 1923)
 * 19 May – Célestin Demblon, politician (died 1924)
 * 25 May – Renée de Merode, noblewoman (died 1941)
 * 12 June – Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant (died 1869)
 * 19 August – Hippolyte Delehaye, Bollandist (died 1941)
 * 20 September – Cyriel Buysse, playwright (died 1932)
 * 7 October – Georgette Meunier, painter (died 1951)
 * 4 November – Jules Feller, academician (died 1940)
 * 7 November – Paul de Smeth, philatelist (died 1940)
 * 11 December – Paul Hankar, architect (died 1901)
 * 25 December – Jean-François Heymans, pharmacologist (died 1932)

Deaths

 * 3 March – Cornelis Cels (born 1778), painter
 * 20 March – Jozef Geirnaert (born 1790), artist
 * 22 July – Louis de Potter (born 1786), journalist
 * 13 November – Prudens van Duyse (born 1804), writer