Hasselt (Belgium)

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Hasselt
Wapen van Hasselt (B) .svg Hasselt (B) vlag.svg
Hasselt (Limburg)
Hasselt
Hasselt
State : BelgiumBelgium Belgium
Region : Flanders
Province : Limburg
District : Hasselt
Coordinates : 50 ° 56 '  N , 5 ° 20'  E Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '  N , 5 ° 20'  E
Area : 102.90 km²
Residents: 78,296 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density: 761 inhabitants per km²
Post Code: 3500 (Hasselt, Sint-Lambrechts-Herk)
3501 (Wimmertingen)
3510 (Kermt, Spalbeek)
3511 (Kuringen, Stokrooie)
3512 (Stevoort)
Prefix: 011
Mayor: Nadja Vananroye ( CD&V )

Local government address : 		Stad Hasselt
Groenplein 1
3500 Hasselt
Website: www.hasselt.be
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Hasselt has been the capital of the Belgian province of Limburg since 1839 and the seat of the Hasselt diocese since 1967 .

geography

Hasselt lies on the Albert Canal and the Demer River . It is 45 km north of Liège on the A 13 and about 10 km south of the Lumme motorway junction ( A 2 Brussels - Aachen ). It is about halfway between Aachen and Leuven .

history

Hasselt emerged from the trade routes between Bruges via Diest and Maastricht to Cologne and received city ​​rights in 1232 from Count Arnold IV of Loon. Hasselt developed into the administrative center of County Loon , which in 1361 fell to the Principality of Liège . In 1830 (when Belgium became independent ) Hasselt became the capital of Limburg, although the city had never been part of an area of ​​that name before. The diocese of Hasselt was established in 1967 when it was separated from the diocese of Liège .

In 1971 the Limburgs Universitair Centrum was founded in neighboring Diepenbeek , and in 2005 it was renamed University of Hasselt .

The Virga Jesse festival is celebrated in Hasselt every seven years.

economy

The foundations for Hasselt's famous jenever industry were laid in the 18th century. This had its great heyday in the 19th century.

Albert Canal in Hasselt

The construction of the Albert Canal (1930–1939) provided new industrial impulses. At present, Hasselt is primarily a commercial and administrative center. But also interesting small and medium-sized manufacturing companies from various industries have their headquarters in Hasselt.

traffic

Hasselt train station

Free bus transport

Local transport project: The popular mayor of the city and later minister as well as party chairman of the sp.a , Steve Stevaert , started a local transport project that received European attention. By saving on investments that were otherwise necessary for the construction of further roads, it became possible in 1997 toset up free bus services for Hasselt and the surrounding area. As a result, the number of passengers rose from an average of 1,000 (1996) to 12,600 (2006).

In 2013, the project was partially terminated because the sharply increased operating costs could no longer be financed through allocations alone. Since then, low travel costs have been due: children and young people up to the age of 18 as well as people over 65 years of age continue to travel for free, all others pay 60 cents per trip.

Light rail traffic

On December 18, 2012, the city council of Maastricht in the Netherlands decided that the transnational project “Tramverbinding Vlaanderen-Maastricht” should be implemented. It connects the centers of Hasselt and Maastricht. Between the cities it takes on tasks like the Euregiobahn in Aachen ; Within the towns, it runs like the originally planned Aachen campus train to the city center. Most of the route is on Belgian territory. This part is part of the 300 million euro Spartacus plan, which is intended to bring a series of improvements in regional transport in Belgian Limburg. The decision for the project is to be made in 2013 in Belgian Limburg. This would then set the course for the new project, and if everything went according to plan, the first light rail system would roll through Maastricht and Hasselt as early as 2018.

An information website on the status of the project was set up in 2017.

EUREGIO ticket

The city can be reached by public transport with a Euregio ticket .

Attractions

  • St. Quintinus Cathedral : built in the 15th and 16th centuries, on Romanesque foundation walls, with a 63 m high west tower, which has a melodious carillon of 47 bells; since 1967 the cathedral of the Hasselt diocese ( → Lage ).
  • Municipal Glockenspiel Museum: in the bell tower of the Sint-Quintinus Cathedral
  • Grote Markt: with beautiful Renaissance - timbered house Het Sweert dating from 1659, which is named by the arm with a sword on the 1st floor at the front corner. The previous building had been an inn since 1452. Until 1713 it was a hostel, today it is a pharmacy ( → Lage ).
  • Virga Jesse basilica : built 1728–1740 in a transitional style between baroque and classicism ; rebuilt after destruction in 1944 until 1952. It houses art treasures such as the high altar from the former Cistercian abbey of Herkenrode near Hasselt ( → Lage ).
  • Stadhuis: (Town Hall), a patrician house from 1630 on Groenplaats (or Groen Plein ) north of the Grote Markt ( → location ).
  • Museum Stellingwerff-Waerdenhof: Museum of town and local history with the oldest monstrance in the world from 1286
the Japanese garden
  • National Jenever Museum: a museum dedicated to the Dutch and Belgian spirit jenever
  • Hendrik van Veldeke - Monument : Monument to the old Limburg poet ( → Lage ).
  • Municipal Fashion Museum
  • The former Provincieraadsgebouw in the Lombaardstraat ( → Lage )
  • The former post office of Hasselt , which was built in the classicist style in 1898 in the street Havermarkt ( → Lage ).
  • The court of justice built in Art Deco ( → Lage ).
  • The beguinage which today houses the art center Z33 ( → location ).
  • Herckenrode Abbey in Kuringen
  • Japanese garden

Regular events

  • Rockfestival Pukkelpop : The rock festival Pukkelpop has been held annually in Hasselt since 1985
  • Virga-Jesse-Fest: every seven years on three days in August the Virga-Jesse-Fest is celebrated in Hasselt (next date: 2017). Virga-Jesse: Gothic statue of the Virgin Mary made of colored oak, 14th century
  • Horse market in Kuringen: traditional annual horse market in Kuringen

Town twinning

Personalities

Sons and daughters

Godefried Guffens 1866

People with a relationship to the city

literature

  • Martin Thomas, Michael Neumann-Adrian: Belgium - Luxembourg. Verlag CJ Bucher, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7658-1097-5 .
  • Reinhard Tiburzy: Belgium - Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia. Verlag DuMont, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7701-6097-5 .
  • Team of authors: Belgium. Verlag Karl Baedeker, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-87504-417-7 , pp. 253-256.

Web links

Commons : Hasselt  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Hasselt in the Topographia Westphaliae (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.virgajessefeesten.be
  2. ↑ OVB Online (2013): Model with blemishes, article from August 7, 2013
  3. ↑ Article from klenkes.de of January 21, 2013: "The campus railway is getting company in Maastricht and Liège" ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.klenkes.de
  4. ↑ Homepage on the status of the light rail project