Maasbracht

Maasbracht

flag	coat of arms
province	Limburg
local community	Maasgouw
Area  - land  - water	10.8  km 2 8.67 km 2 2.13 km 2
Residents	6,954 (Jan. 1, 2018)
Coordinates	51 ° 9 '  N , 5 ° 53'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 9 '  N , 5 ° 53'  E
Important traffic route
prefix	0475
Postcodes	6019, 6051, 6065, 6067, 6075, 6101
Location of Maasbracht in the municipality of Maasgouw

St. Gertrudis with the marlstone church tower from the 14th century

Maasbracht ( listen ^{? / I} ) is a village with 6,954 inhabitants in the Dutch province of Limburg and at the same time the name of a former municipality.

history

The Leonardus mill in Maasbracht

Archaeological finds show that fishermen lived in Maasbracht as early as prehistoric times. With the construction of the Juliana Canal in the 1920s, Maasbracht developed into one of the largest inland ports in the Netherlands; the main cargo was coal from the nearby South Limburg mines around Heerlen . However, after the South Limburg mines were closed, cargo throughput in the Maasbracht port declined significantly from around 1970.

The former municipality of Maasbracht was merged with the municipalities of Heel (with the villages of Heel, Beegden, Panheel and Wessem) and Thorn to form the municipality of Maasgouw on January 1, 2007 . On December 31, 2006, the former municipality of Maasbracht had 13,587 inhabitants. Their area was 25.98 km². The following places were in the municipality: Brachterbeek, Laak, Linne, Maasbracht, Ohé en Laak and Stevensweert.

Location, economy and sights

Maasbracht aan de Maas and the Maasplassen

View from the Maasbracht lock over part of the port and the town, in the background the power plant that is always present in the town

Sculpture and restaurant at the roundabout

Maasbracht is located in the middle of the Limburg province between Weert , the Belgian-Dutch border and Echt-Susteren, directly on the Meuse . The A2 motorway from the Belgian-Dutch border in Eijsden near Maastricht to Amsterdam via Eindhoven crosses the Maas at Maasbracht, at the Het Vonderen motorway junction to the right of the Maas, the A73 motorway branches off from the A2 to Nijmegen via Roermond .

The Julianakanal coming from Maastricht as a side channel to the Maas ends downstream in Maasbracht, shortly before the end of the canal on the edge of the port area there is the three-chamber Maasbracht lock . At 11.85 meters, the Maasbracht lock has the highest drop height of all locks in the Netherlands. The Wessem – Niederweert canal (Panheel lock) also begins near Maasbracht . Two other lock systems east of Heel can be used to navigate either the Maas via the piercing of a Meuse bend in the direction of Roermond directly or the Linne-Buggenum Lateral Canal, which leads past Roermond and flows back into the Maas, but which saves locks , another side canal to the Maas .

There is a boarding school for children of inland navigation in Maasbracht as well as a museum on the history of inland navigation. The old sailing barge “Nooit Volmaakt” can be viewed in the harbor. Also worth seeing is the church tower of St. Getrudiskerk, which was made of marl in the 14th century, directly at the harbor and the Leonardusmühle, a tower windmill.

Sunrise over the Clauscentrale

The Clauscentrale power plant, which can be seen from afar , was operated with natural gas and biogas from the energy supplier Essent and was able to produce up to eight percent of the Dutch electricity at short notice as required. The two power plant blocks were commissioned in 1977 and 1978 and converted into so-called start-stop units in 1993/1994. Each block has an output of 640 megawatts . Power plant unit B has not been in operation since 2011 because it has been converted into the new unit C since summer 2008. Unit C is to have an output of 1,275 megawatts, the efficiency is to increase from the current 40 percent to 58.5 percent in the future. The construction costs of the project were estimated at around one billion euros. In spring 2014 the Claus center was decommissioned.

The extraction of gravel from pits along the Meuse resulted in numerous lakes, mostly connected to the Meuse, the Maasplassen . Today these are primarily used for water sports tourism.

Many people in the former community make a living from growing fruit or commute to work in the surrounding cities.

politics

Distribution of seats in the municipal council

Until the municipality was dissolved, the following distribution of seats had been made since 1982:

Political party	Seats
	1982	1986	1990 a	1994	1998	2002
CDA	5	7th	5	4th	3	6th
Democrats Maasbracht	-	-	-	2	2	3
Meuse fractie	-	-	3	3	3	2
VVD	2	2	-	1	1	2
Core issues	-	-	2	1	2
PvdA	2	2	1	1	1	2
Lijst Prejean b	-	-	-	-	1	-
Lijst Graus c	-	-	1	1	1	-
Maaseiland b	-	-	2	2	1	-
Maasland Combinatie	-	-	1	-	-	-
Lijst Smeets	1	2	-	-	-	-
Lijst Noldes d	3	0	-	-	-	-
Lijst-Streng	0	-	-	-	-	-
total	13	13	15th	15th	15th	15th

^a On January 1, 1991, the municipalities of Linne, Ohé en Laak and Stevensweert were incorporated into Maasbracht.

^bIn the municipal elections in 2002, the parties Lijst Prejean and Maaseiland joined the CDA .

^c The Lijst Graus was merged into the Democrats Maasbracht party in 2002.

^d In 1982 the Lijst Noldes ran under the name "Lijst Cnoops".

Town twinning

• Zons , Germany

Personalities

• Mark van Bommel (* 1977), football player

Web links

Commons : Maasbracht  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Regional Tourist Board website (multilingual)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Cijfers en feiten Gemeente Maasgouw, accessed on August 6, 2018 (Dutch)
2. ↑ Website of the municipality of Maasgouw with information on Maasbracht, accessed on August 3, 2011 (in Dutch) ( Memento of the original of August 7, 2011 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. 
3. ↑ Allocation of seats in the municipal council: 1982–2002 , accessed on August 6, 2018 (Dutch)