Events in the year 1853 in Belgium.
Incumbents
Monarch: Leopold I
Head of government: Henri de Brouckère
Events
9 April – Prince Leopold sworn in as a member of the Belgian Senate. 9 June – Aalst railway station opens. 22 August – Marriage of Leopold, Duke of Brabant, heir to the Belgian throne, and Marie Henriette of Austria. 23 August – International Maritime Conference opens in Brussels under the chairmanship of Adolphe Quetelet and at the instigation of Matthew Fontaine Maury (ends 8 September) 19 September – First International Statistical Congress opens in Brussels under the chairmanship of Adolphe Quetelet.
Publications
Periodicals
Almanach royal officiel (Brussels, H. Tarlier) Annales de pomologie belge et étrangère (Commission Royale de Pomologie) begins publication. Annuaire de la noblesse de Belgique, vol. 5, edited by Isidore de Stein d'Altenstein La Belgique Horticole, vol. 3. Bulletins de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, vol. 20 (Brussels, M. Hayez) Recueil des pièces imprimées par ordre de la Chambre des Représentants, vol. 3.
Guidebooks and directories
Bradshaw's illustrated hand-book for travellers in Belgium, on the Rhine, and through portions of Rhenish Prussia (London, W.J. Adams) Francis Coghlan, The Miniature Guide to the Rhine through Belgium and Holland (London, J. Onwhyn)
Art and architecture
Buildings
Aalst railway station
Paintings
Henri Leys, Frans Floris Going to a Saint Luke's Day Feast 1540
Charles Verlat, Buffalo Ambushed by a Tiger
Antoine Wiertz, Hunger, Madness and Crime
Births
31 January – Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire, Flemish activist (died 1948) 14 February – Jan Van Rijswijck, politician (died 1906) 20 December – Marie Parent, feminist (died 1934)