1897 in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Paul de Smet de Naeyer

  Events

• 10 May – Brussels International Exposition opens
• 28 July – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom gives notification of his country's intention to withdraw from the Anglo-Belgian Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, to come into effect one year later.
• 16 August – Belgian Antarctic Expedition sets sail from Antwerp
• 8 November – Brussels International Exposition closes
• 16 December – Charles-Gustave Walravens appointed bishop of Tournai

  Publications

• Camille Lemonnier, Alphonse Wauters, and Armand Heins, Le Palais de la ville de Bruxelles à l'Exposition universelle de 1897

• Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 14.
• Grant Allen, Cities of Belgium
• Guido Gezelle, Rijmsnoer
• Gustave Kahn, Limbes de lumières, illustrated by Georges Lemmen
• Désiré-Joseph Mercier, Les Origines de la psychologie contemporaine
• Emile Vandervelde, Le question agraire en Belgique

  Births

• 1 January – Albert De Vleeschauwer, politician
• 24 January – Fernand Ledoux, actor
• 29 January – Honoré Vlamynck, footballer
• 11 April – Paul Graeffe, bobsledder
• 7 May – Marcel Maas, pianist
• 11 May – Joris Minne, artist
• 2 June – Léon Trulin, intelligence agent
• 8 June – Domien Jacob, gymnast
• 19 June – Ernest Casimir-Lambert, bobsledder
• 1 August – Camil Van Hulse, pianist
• 25 August – Léoncé Oleffe, athlete
• 12 September – Albert Wyckmans, cyclist
• 4 November – Paul Finet, politician
• 5 November – Paul Kronacker, politician
• 24 November
• * Lode Craeybeckx, politician
• * Pierre Devaux, athlete
• 5 December – Gust De Muynck, broadcaster
• 18 December – Fernand Collin, banker

  Deaths

• 13 February – Gustave Den Duyts, artist
• 1 March – Jules de Burlet, politician
• 12 July – Félix Godefroid, harpist
• 23 September – Isidore-Joseph du Rousseaux, bishop of Tournai
• 22 November – Frans Verhas, painter