Sint-Michielsgestel

Sint-Michielsgestel
Municipality

Town hall of Sint-Michielsgestel

Flag
Coat of arms
Highlighted position of Sint-Michielsgestel in a municipal map of North Brabant
Location in North Brabant
Coordinates: 51°38′N 5°21′E / 51.633°N 5.350°E / 51.633; 5.350Coordinates: 51°38′N 5°21′E / 51.633°N 5.350°E / 51.633; 5.350
Country Netherlands
Province North Brabant
Government[1]
 • Body Municipal council
 • Mayor Jan Pommer (CDA)
Area[2]
 • Total 59.34 km2 (22.91 sq mi)
 • Land 58.44 km2 (22.56 sq mi)
 • Water 0.90 km2 (0.35 sq mi)
Elevation[3] 6 m (20 ft)
Population (May 2014)[4]
 • Total 28,286
 • Density 484/km2 (1,250/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postcode 5258, 5270–5275, 5290–5294
Area code 073
Website sint-michielsgestel.nl
Dutch Topographic map of Sint-Michielsgestel, June 2015

Sint-Michielsgestel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌsɪntmiˌxilsˈxɛstəl]) is a municipality and a town in the southern part of the Netherlands. It is located directly south of 's-Hertogenbosch, the capital of North Brabant province. Its name refers to archangel St. Michael.

Population centres

Besselaar, Doornhoek, Haanwijk (nl), Hal, Halder (nl), De Bus, De Hogert, De Loofaart, Heikantse Hoeve, Hersend, Hezelaar, Hoek, Kerkeind, Laar, Maaskantje, Middelrode (nl), Nijvelaar, Plein, Poeldonk (nl), Ruimel, Tielse Hoeve, Wielsche Hoeven, Wamberg (nl) and Woud.

Contemporary Sint-Michielsgestel

Major employer in the town of Sint-Michielsgestel is Kentalis (nl), a resource center for sensory and communicative disabled people formerly known as Institute for the deaf and hearing impaired called Instituut voor Doven (nl) aka Viataal.

Most inhabitants are commuters as there is little to no industry in town.

The river Dommel, which flows from a well in Belgium to the river Maas in The Netherlands, divides the town in two parts.
Most of the villagers come here for fishing, since the river is filled with a lot of different fishes. The fish that you will see the most, is the "Driel". The present municipality Sint-Michielsgestel was founded in 1996, by merging Sint-Michielsgestel (est. 1314), Den Dungen (est. 1810) and Berlicum (est. 1238).

The complete village of Gemonde (nl), which till then partly belonged to Boxtel, was added to Sint-Michielsgestel in 1999.

History

Archeological finds near the township of Halder indicate that this area was already inhabited during the Roman era. Thousands of Roman coins were found in 1962 not far from the Nieuw Herlaer castle.
These and other local archeological finds are now on display in the Museum of Antiquities at Viataal.

Sint-Michielsgestel was named after the high and dry sandy land (=Gestel) and their catholic church dedicated to archangel St. Michael.
Its name was first mentioned when estates or heerlijkheden (nl) Herlaer and Gestel were joined in approx. 1314 AD (maybe even earlier but there is no written documentation prior to that time).
The estate of Herlaer already was mentioned in 1142 AD by name as being the estate of Dirck, Monarch of Herlaer.

The klein seminarie (nl) Beekvliet (nl) was founded in 1815 in the town of Sint-Michielsgestel. During World War II this facility was used as prison-camp, along with the grootseminarie (nl) in Haaren. On 4 May 1942 the Germans imprisoned 460 Dutch men in Beekvliet.
All prisoners were politically involved or otherwise important to the Dutch people. Luuk van Driel, father of the famous Tim and Dirk, also known as 'grote spelers', got to escape along with a group of people, by calling the police. He was named local hero after this. Amongst them were writers Simon Vestdijk and Anton van Duinkerken (nl). Political prisoners were Wim Schermerhorn (Prime Minister 1945-1946), Willem Banning (nl), Pieter Geyl and Jan Eduard de Quay (nl), all post-war politicians.
Currently the Gymnasium Beekvliet (nl) is a renowned College (Dutch:zelfstandig gymnasium) with over 800 students.

References

  1. ↑ "Samenstelling College van B en W" [Members board of mayor and aldermen] (in Dutch). Gemeente Sint-Michielsgestel. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  2. ↑ "Kerncijfers wijken en buurten" [Key figures for neighbourhoods]. CBS Statline (in Dutch). CBS. 2 July 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "Postcodetool for 5271GC". Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (in Dutch). Het Waterschapshuis. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  4. ↑ "Bevolkingsontwikkeling; regio per maand" [Population growth; regions per month]. CBS Statline (in Dutch). CBS. 26 June 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
 's-Hertogenbosch Maasdonk
Vught Bernheze
Schijndel
   Sint-Michielsgestel  
Boxtel Sint-Oedenrode
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.