Kerkrade

Kerkrade ( Kirchroa in Limbourgeois) is a commune of the province Dutchwoman of the Limbourg and counts 49.563 inhabitants (January 1st 2006, source: CBS). It is located close to the border with Germany and is close to common allemande Herzogenrath.

History

The name of Kerkrade appeared with the Middle Ages. The suffix roads returns to the grubbing of a timbered ground, kerk with a church. The first traces of settlement go up at the time Roman, but it is only about year 1000 that populations are installed durably in the west of the valley of the Wurm on the site of current Kerkrade. An Abbey, called Kloosterrade (in French Abbey of Rolduc), is rested by monks Augustins in 1104. A castle is built in the vicinity and is baptized Hertogenrode (in French Grind-the-Duke), on the site of the current commune of Herzogenrath.

Kerkrade was part of the Pays of 's-Hertogenrode depend on the Duché on the Brabant, which passed under the yokes of the Maison of Burgundy (1430) then of that of the Habsbourg S (1477) (attached successively to the Spanish crown then Austrian). Kerkrade like the whole of the Netherlands of the South was between 1795 and 1815 under French domination. The treated of Aachen (1818), which clarified certain points of the Congrès of Vienna, establishes the layout of the border between the Netherlands and the Prussia which cut Hertogenrode in two parts, the Dutchwoman part becoming Kerkrade.

The street Nieuwstraat/Neustraße is cut into two by the border and was separate a long time a low wall of 30cm, to oblige the vehicles to pass by the border posts. It was removed definitively in 1991 following the agreements of Schengen, and today the border became invisible.

Kerkrade and Herzogenrath are today reunified in the European city symbolic system of Eurode.

Mining industry

The presence of coal in the area was known as of XIIIe century, but it is only as from the XVIIIe century that its exploitation really started. Initially managed by the monks of the Abbey of Rolduc, the exploitation was modernized as from 1860 and was at the origin of the significant growth of Kerkrade. Mining industry was the first employer of the area until in the years 1960, years of closing of the mines.

Since 1957, a statue baptized of R Joep , on the place of the market, recalls the importance of this industry for Kerkrade. The name of R Joep returns to Saint-Joseph, patron saint of the workers.

Culture

Kerkrade is today especially famous for its festival of music of the Instrument wind S and coppers, the WMC (Wereld Muziek Concours), organized every four years and whose first demonstration took place in 1951.

On the sporting level, the football club Roda JC defends the colors of the city.

External bonds

Abbey of Rolduc
Official site of the town of Kerkrade
Official site of the town of Herzogenrath
Eurode

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Nds-nl: Karkraode

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