Events in the year 1897 in Belgium.

• Monarch: Leopold II^[1]
• Prime Minister: Paul de Smet de Naeyer^[2]

• 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 (1862), 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

Exhibitions

• Camille Lemonnier, Alphonse Wauters, and Armand Heins, Le Palais de la ville de Bruxelles à l'Exposition universelle de 1897^[3]

Books

• Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 14.
• Grant Allen, Cities of Belgium (London, G. Richards)^[4]
• Louis Cloquet, Les grandes cathédrales du monde catholique (Desclée De Brouwer)^[5]
• Guido Gezelle, Rijmsnoer
• Gustave Kahn, Limbes de lumières, illustrated by Georges Lemmen (Brussels, Edmond Deman)
• Désiré-Joseph Mercier, Les Origines de la psychologie contemporaine^[6]
• Emile Vandervelde, Le question agraire en Belgique

• 1 January – Albert De Vleeschauwer, politician (died 1971)
• 24 January – Fernand Ledoux, actor (died 1994)
• 29 January – Honoré Vlamynck, footballer (died 1974)
• 11 April – Paul Graeffe, bobsledder (died 1957)
• 7 May – Marcel Maas, pianist (died 1950)
• 11 May – Joris Minne, artist (died 1988)
• 2 June – Léon Trulin, intelligence agent (died 1915)
• 8 June – Domien Jacob, gymnast (died 1984)
• 19 June – Ernest Casimir-Lambert, bobsledder (died 1931)
• 1 August – Camil Van Hulse, pianist (died 1988)
• 25 August – Léoncé Oleffe, athlete (died 1972)
• 12 September – Albert Wyckmans, cyclist (died 1995)
• 4 November – Paul Finet, politician (died 1965)
• 5 November – Paul Kronacker, politician (died 1994)
• 24 November
  • Lode Craeybeckx, politician (died 1976)
  • Pierre Devaux, athlete (died 1984)
• 5 December – Gust De Muynck, broadcaster (died 1986)
• 18 December – Fernand Collin, banker (died 1990)

• 13 February – Gustave Den Duyts (born 1850), artist
• 1 March – Jules de Burlet (born 1844), politician
• 12 July – Félix Godefroid (born 1818), harpist
• 23 September – Isidore-Joseph du Rousseaux (born 1826), bishop of Tournai
• 22 November – Frans Verhas (born 1827), painter