Houthalen-Helchteren
Encyclopedia
Houthalen-Helchteren is a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 located in the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 province of Limburg
Limburg (Belgium)
Limburg is the easternmost province of modern Flanders, which is one of the three main political and cultural sub-divisions of modern Belgium. It is located west of the river Meuse . It borders on the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Belgian provinces of Liège, Flemish Brabant...

. Houthalen-Helchteren consists of: Houthalen-centrum, Houthalen-Oost, Laak, Meulenberg and Lillo. On January 1, 2006 Houthalen-Helchteren had a total population of 29,945. The total area is 78.27 km² which gives a population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 383 inhabitants per km².

Geographical position of Helchteren

Helchteren is located near the watershed between the Meuse
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...

 and the Scheldt
Scheldt
The Scheldt is a 350 km long river in northern France, western Belgium and the southwestern part of the Netherlands...

. In the immediate vicinity the Dommel
Dommel
The Dommel is a creek in Belgium and the Netherlands, left tributary of the Dieze. It rises in north-eastern Belgium near Peer and flows into the southern part of the Netherlands. The Dommel takes in water from the Keersop, Tongelreep, Run, Gender and Kleine Dommel streams and merges at...

 (which flows to the Meuse near Den Bosch), the Grote Nete (which flows to the Scheldt) and the Neer (that joins the Meuse just south of Roermond) all originate.

History of Helchteren

Helchteren could have become famous in 1702 when, during the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...

, a French Army under Boufflers
Louis François, duc de Boufflers
Louis François, Duc de Boufflers, Comte de Cagny was a Marshal of France....

 faced an alliance army under Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

. A battle could have ensued, but instead it came to the not so famous cannonade of Helchteren. The cannonade itself is however a seldom occurring event in military history.

Notable people

  • Ingrid Daubechies
    Ingrid Daubechies
    Ingrid Daubechies is a Belgian physicist and mathematician. She was between 2004 and 2011 the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in the mathematics and applied mathematics departments at Princeton University. In January 2011 she moved to Duke University as a Professor in mathematics. She is the first...

     (born in Houthalen on 17 August, 1954) physicist and mathematician.

External links

  • Official website - Information available in Dutch
    Dutch language
    Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

     and limited information available in English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    .
  • Helchteren at the Spanish Succession - Information about the cannonade at Helchteren in 1702.
  • Digital Archive Marburg - Maps of the cannonade at Helchteren in 1702.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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