← 1858 1857 1856 1859 in Belgium → 1860 1861 1862
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	Other events of 1859 List of years 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.^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• 31 August – Belgian Chamber of Representatives votes to fortify Antwerp as a National Redoubt.^[3]
• 3 November – Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic University of Leuven.^[4]
• 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)^[5]
• Annales de pomologie belge et étrangère, vol. 7.^[6][7]
• Annuaire de l'Académie royale de Belgique, vol. 25^[8]
• Annuaire de la noblesse de Belgique, vol. 13, edited by Isidore de Stein d'Altenstein^[9]
• Annuaire statistique et historique belge, vol. 6, edited by Auguste Scheler^[10]
• La Belgique, 8^[11]
• La Belgique Horticole, vol. 9.^[12]
• Bibliographie de la Belgique, ou Catalogue général de l'imprimerie et de la librairie belges, vol. 22 (Brussels, Charles Muquardt)^[13]
• Bulletins de l'Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles (Brussels, Hayez).^[14]
• Bulletin et annales de l'Académie d'archéologie de Belgique, vol. 6^[15]
• Collection de précis historiques, vol. 8, edited by Edouard Terwecoren S.J.^[16]
• Journal de l'armée belge, vol. 17^[17]
• Journal d'horticulture pratique de la Belgique^[18]
• Le Moniteur Belge ^[19]
• Recueil consulaire contenant les rapports commerciaux^[20]
• Recueil des lois et arrêtés royaux de la Belgique, vol. 11^[21]

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)^[22]
• 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)^[23]
• 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)^[24]
• Jean Stecher, Flamands et Wallons (Liège, F. Renard)^[25]

Literature

• Frans de Cort, Liederen, tweede reeks (Antwerp)^[26]

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