Thorn (Limburg)
 flag |
 coat of arms |
| province |
.svg){kind=small} Limburg
|
| local community |
 Maasgouw
|
|
Area - land - water |
6.69 km 2 5.79 km 2 0.9 km 2 |
| Residents | 2,410 (Jan. 1, 2018) |
| Coordinates | 51 ° 10 ′ N , 5 ° 51 ′ E |
| height | 30 m NAP |
| Important traffic route |
  
|
| prefix | 0475 |
| Postcodes | 6014, 6017, 6019, 6097 |
 |
|
Thorn ( ) ( Limburgish Toear ) is a place in the Netherlands and was an independent municipality in the province of Limburg until December 31, 2006 . With effect from January 1, 2007, Thorn merged with Heel and Maasbracht to form the newly founded municipality of Maasgouw .
The former small town is twelve kilometers southwest of Roermond near the Maas and Maasplassen on the border between North and Central Limburg. Because of the numerous whitewashed houses, Thorn is also called "the white town" ( Dutch het witte stadje ).
history
The town of Thorn emerged from a Benedictine abbey founded around 975 . In the course of the 12th century, the abbey was transformed into a free worldly women's monastery , which later became the Thorn Imperial Monastery . Only unmarried women from the high nobility were allowed to enter the women's monastery; religious women willing to marry lived outside the monastery walls in some of their own houses.
The Romanesque abbey church , which was built around 992, was extensively rebuilt in the Gothic period and was given a lavish Baroque interior during the Baroque period . Up until the 17th century, many canonesses had their own houses built outside of the actual monastery district, most of which are still preserved today. The whole old town is paved with pebbles from the Meuse, supposedly so that the precious skirts of the canonies were not unnecessarily exposed to the dirt from the street. The aristocratic women's monastery made Thorn a prosperous city and was the center of a principality ruled by the abbesses for over 800 years . The "Land of Thorn" minted its own coins at times.
In 1794, French troops marched in , confiscated the monastery and thus ended the centuries of female monastery rule. The window tax introduced by the French , which was based on the size of the window, forced the people of Thorner to renovate their houses. They used the stones of the old abbey, whose monastery building was laid down around 1800. In order to hide the different sizes of the stones, the Thorner whitewashed the walls of their houses with white lime. This gave Thorn the name "The White City". The French era ended after the Battle of Waterloo (1815), Napoleon's last battle.
Even today most of the houses are white. In the old town of Thorn, a tourist attraction, 105 objects have been awarded the status of a Rijksmonument , another two are located outside the actual old town.
From 2002 to 2004 a sand sculpture festival took place in Thorn in the summer .
Personalities
The following people, among others, were born in Thorn or have close ties to the place:
- Anna Salome von Manderscheid-Blankenheim , abbess of the imperial monastery
- Clara Elisabeth von Manderscheid-Blankenheim , canon
- Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach , abbess of the imperial monastery
- Maria Kunigunde of Saxony , abbess of the imperial monastery
- Pierre Kuijpers , conductor and oboist
- Harry Vorselen , conductor and horn player
Picture gallery
Thorn aan de Maasplassen
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 | 1994 | 1998 | 2002 | |
| Lijst Stakenborg a | 1 | 2 | - | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| PvdA | - | - | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| CDA | - | - | - | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Lijst Kuijpers | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Lijst Zeegers | - | - | 4th | 1 | - | - |
| Lijst Adams | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - |
| Lijst Parren | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| R'82 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - |
| total | 7th | 7th | 7th | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Web links
- www.gemeentemaasgouw.nl: Thorn (Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cijfers en feiten Gemeente Maasgouw, accessed on August 6, 2018 (Dutch)
- ↑ a b gemeentemaasgouw: Website of the municipality of Maasgouw on the history of Thorn ( Memento of the original of June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Allocation of seats in the municipal council: 1982–2002 , accessed on August 6, 2018 (Dutch)
