Heerlen

Template:Infobox Dutch municipality 3

Heerlen is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands and the second biggest city in the province of Limburg.

In the 19th century it became a centre for the coal mining industry. In the 20th century architect Frits Peutz played a major role shaping the city. His most famous design, and a distinctive building in the city centre, is the so-called Glaspaleis (Glass Palace), formerly housing the Schunck department store and now a cultural centre. It is a national monument and listed as one of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century.

History

Even though there are signs of earlier habitation, the history of people living in Heerlen starts with the arrival of the Romans. They founded a military settlement and named it Coriovallum. The settlement was founded on the crossroad of two main roads : Boulogne sur Mer - Cologne and Xanten - Aachen - Trier. Heerlen and the suroundings still contain alot of evidence of Romanlife, villas and farms, but most notable is the Thermae, a Roman bathhouse (only a few have been found in the Netherlands). A museum, also housing other Roman finds, has been build over the Thermae and opend its doors in 1977.

Around the 10th century agriculture starts to develop throughout Europe and Heerlen starts to take shape. It is first mentioned in a 1056 document under the name 'Herle'. In 1244 Heerlen came under the authority of the dukes of Brabant, but in 1388 it was split off along with Hoensbroek. It then became part of a front line of Brabant-Burgundy. In 1661, after the eighty years' war Heerlen became part of the new Dutch state, ending up on the border with the Spanish territories. In 1793 the French conquered Heerlen. In 1814 it became part of the Netherlands again, then sided with Belgium in the Belgian Revolution in 1830, but became part of the Netherlands again in 1839, when the province of Limburg was split up between the Netherlands and Belgium.

In the 19th century, Limburg didn't industrialise with the rest of the Netherlands (or Europe for that matter) and remained largely argrarian. Only by 1896 did Heerlen get a railway line, to transport coal from the newly established State mines. The population rose sharply from 6646 in 1900 to 32.263 in 1930. During the expansion almost all old buildings were demolished. The tallest mine chimney, 'Lange Jan' ('Long John') became a major landmark. This chimney is now demolished and today little is left of the mines, which were closed in the 1960's.

In 1935 got another, more central, landmark, the Glaspaleis, commissioned by fabric merchant Peter Schunck and built by Frits Peutz. It is an early example of Modern Architecture and has received many awards after it was renovated. It is surrounded by the three central squares and now houses the city's cultural centre. It has become a symbol of the reviving of Heerlen after the closing of the mines.

Education

Among the education institetus in Heerlen is Zuyd University (or Hogeschool Zuyd in Template:Dutch), which is a University of Profesional Education. The administration office of the Open University of the Netherlands (Open Universiteit or OU in Dutch), which is a university for distance learning. Heerlen was also the location of the now defunct University of Theology and Pastorate (Universiteit van Theologie en Pastoraat or UTP in Dutch). Jokingly it was sad that Heerlen was the location of the biggest (the Open University) and the smallest (the UTP) unviversity of the Netherlands (since it was jokingly whether or not the OU has the most students is besides the point)

Population centres

External link

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