Woensel

Woensel is a former village in the Dutch province of North Brabant, now part of Eindhoven.

An important rural village in North Brabant, Woensel is mentioned in a document from 1107; it was the seat of a deanage of the diocese of Liège. Around 1200, Eindhoven, a fortification on the Dommel river to the south of Woensel, grew into a local market town that took more political prominence, but never surpassed Woensel in prosperity or population.

Woensel was a separate municipality until the fusion, in 1920, of Eindhoven proper (i.e. within the town walls) and its surrounding villages into a single municipality. Today, Woensel is Eindhoven's largest district, with about 110,000 inhabitants; it is mostly covered by urban neighbourhoods erected between 1950 and 1990.

Woensel offers very few places of more than local interest, being almost entirely a residential area; Eindhoven's main entertainment venues and industry are in other parts of town.

Known to at least Eindhoven's inhabitants are

• de Woenselse markt, the heart of old Woensel town in classical triangular shape, which hosts Eindhoven's main market every Saturday;
• Winkelcentrum Woensel, a large shopping center at the heart of the Woensel area
• Eindhoven's two hospitals (Catharina- and Maxima Medisch Centrum))
• Eckart castle

There is also a World War II cemetery of the Commonwealth of Nations.

External links

• old pictures of Woensel, with explanations (in Dutch)
• Map of the former municipality in 1868