Gilze en Rijen

Gilze en Rijen municipality

flag	coat of arms
province	North Brabant
mayor	Derk Alssema ( CDA )
Seat of the municipality	Rijen
Area  - land  - water	65.66  km 2 65.38 km 2 0.28 km 2
CBS code	0784
Residents	26,456 (Jan 31, 2019)
Population density	403 inhabitants / km 2
Coordinates	51 ° 34 ′  N , 4 ° 56 ′  E Coordinates: 51 ° 34 ′  N , 4 ° 56 ′  E
Important traffic route
prefix	0161
Postcodes	5120-5126
Website	gilzerijen.nl

Gilze en Rijen ( listen ^{? / I} ) is a municipality in the Netherlands , province of Noord-Brabant . Its population is 26,456 (as of January 31, 2019). The total surface of the municipality is 65.66 km².

places

• Rijen (about 16,750 inhabitants), this is where the municipal administration is based
• Gilze (about 7955 inhabitants)
• Molenschot (about 1250 inhabitants)
• Hulten (about 350 inhabitants)

Location and economy

Rijen is eight kilometers east of Breda and twelve kilometers west of Tilburg , about 4 kilometers north of the A58 motorway and on the railroad between these two cities. The Gilze-Rijen train station is also located in Rijen. There is also a road from Breda to Tilburg through Rijen.

South of Rijen is the Gilze-Rijen Air Base (a military airfield ), today the home base for helicopters. It is an important NATO base in the Netherlands and has a 2779 m long runway. The “ Koninklijke Luchtmacht ” (Dutch Air Force ) is the largest employer in the municipality.

Further south is the village of Gilze, where tourism is important. To the west of the air force base is Molenschot, a small farming village that has a pilgrimage chapel dedicated to Saint Anne .

Agriculture and small businesses as well as several hotels and campsites are spread across the municipality.

history

The two largest villages emerged in the Middle Ages and soon got their own churches. The Eighty Years War hit Gilze hard. In 1584 it was attacked, looted and sacked by soldiers who had their camp near Antwerp . Army soldiers were later quartered here, which sometimes rightly had devastating consequences for the villages. The Molenschot pilgrimage chapel was built in the 17th century. In 1762 part of Gilze burned down after an arsonist set fire to a church.

When the railway opened in 1863, tanneries settled here . The processing of the leather for the production of shoes had long been an important additional income for the local farmers. After 1950 this industry gradually died down. See: Waalwijk .

In the meantime, the airfield established by the Dutch Air Force in 1910 had grown in importance. The German occupation troops also contributed to this in 1941. It hit the headlines in 2005 when a large, and in some cases still unsolved, gun robbery took place.

On July 25, 2019, the highest temperature in the Netherlands to date was measured in Gilze en Rijen at 40.7 degrees Celsius.

Attractions

Pilgrimage Chapel St. Annen

• The forests south of Rijen and west of Gilze
• Some nice old farms
• The pilgrimage chapel of St. Annen in Molenschot. Every year on July 26th, many people from all over Brabant make a pilgrimage here. They then pray for either a suitable husband or wife, or for a child. On site they say: “Naar Molenschot gaat ieder Anneke om een ​​Manneke, every Manneke om een ​​Anneke.” In German, for example: Every Ännchen goes to Molenschot for a male, and every male for an Ännchen. This festival goes hand in hand with a fair .

politics

The local election on March 21, 2018, was won by the local group of voters Kern '75 with a margin of 15 votes. In the 2018–2022 legislative period, it will form a coalition with Gemeentebelang and the CDA .

Municipal council

Local election on March 21, 2018

Turnout: 54.61%

 %

30th

20th

10

0

21.8

21.6

18.9

16.9

11.5

9.4

K75 ^a

GB ^b

CDA

VVD

PvdA

D66

Gains and losses

compared to 2014

 % p

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-14

-12.6

-2.4

± 0.0

+6.3

-0.7

+9.4

K75 ^a

GB ^b

CDA

VVD

PvdA

D66

Remarks:

^a core '75

^b Gemeentebelang

The municipal council has been formed as follows since 1982:

Political party	Seats
	1982	1986	1990	1994	1998	2002	2006	2010	2014	2018
Core '75	4th	4th	3	5	4th	4th	4th	7th	8th	5
Community a	2	2	2	3	3	4th	3	3	5	5
CDA	5	7th	10	3	3	3	3	3	4th	4th
VVD	2	2	1	1	2	1	2	3	2	3
PvdA	2	4th	3	2	3	3	6th	5	2	2
D66	0	-	-	1	0	-	-	-	-	2
Locaal Belang b	-	-	-	4th	4th	4th	3	-	-	-
Plaatselijke Groepering Gilze en Rijen c	1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Lijst Boemaars d	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
total	19th	19th	19th	19th	19th	19th	21st	21st	21st	21st

Remarks

^a Gemeentebelang ran as Sociaal Appèl-P'70 up to and including 1982 .

^b Locaal Belang was absorbed into the local Kern '75 party in the 2010 local elections .

^cThe Plaatselijke Groepering Gilze en Rijen was named Lijst van Ardenne when it was elected in 1982 .

^dThe members of the Lijst Boemaars joined the local CDA parliamentary group in the 1986 election.

College van B&W

The coalition parties CDA, Gemeentebelang and Kern '75 are each represented by an alderman in the College van burgemeester en wethouders . The following people belong to the college:

function	Surname	Political party	annotation
mayor	Derk Alssema	CDA	in office since April 7, 2020
Alderman	Ariane Zwarts	Community concern	-
	Aletta van der Veen	Core '75	-
	Rolph Dols	CDA	-
Community Secretary	René Wiersema	-	in office since March 2018

sons and daughters of the town

• Janus Theeuwes (1886–1975), archer
• Marcellin Theeuwes OCart (1936–2019), Catholic priest
• Rebecca Noldus (* 1964), writer
• Jeroen Blijlevens (* 1971), racing cyclist
• Jürgen Wouters (* 1981), badminton player

Web links

Commons : Gilze en Rijen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the municipality (Dutch)
• Military airfield website In: defensie.nl . Ministerie van Defensie (Dutch)
• Breda Tourist Office website (Dutch, English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Benoeming burgemeester Gilze en Rijen. In: rijksoverheid.nl. Rijksoverheid, March 23, 2020, accessed April 7, 2020 (Dutch). 
2. ↑ Bevolkingsontwikkeling; regio per maand . In: StatLine . Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (Dutch)
3. ↑ Een nieuw hitterecord: 40.7 degrees. In: Trouw . De Persgroep Nederland , July 25, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 (Dutch). 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Results of the local elections: 1982–2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 , accessed on January 31, 2019 (Dutch)
5. ↑ College van B en W . In: gilzerijen.nl . Gemeente Gilze en Rijen, accessed January 31, 2019 (Dutch)