1.
Municipalities of Belgium
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As such, only Antwerp, having over 500,000 inhabitants, became subdivided into nine districts. The Belgian arrondissements, a level between province and municipality, or the lowest judicial level, are in English sometimes called districts as well. The municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants were grouped in so-called canton municipalities, in 1800, these canton municipalities were abolished again and the number of autonomous municipalities became 2,776. Not much changed during the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, only a number of municipalities were merged. In 1831, Belgium was divided into 2,739 municipalities, New municipalities were created until 1928. There were 2,528 municipalities in 1850,2,572 in 1875,2,617 in 1900 and this also includes the municipalities of the East Cantons that were added to Belgium following the First World War. In 1961, the so-called Unitary Law, of which the chapter was dedicated to the territorial organisation of the municipalities, was adopted. The authority to abolish municipalities was entrusted to the branch for a period of 10 years. Municipalities could be merged on financial grounds or on grounds of a geographical, linguistic, economic, in 1964 and in 1969 and 1970, roughly 300 municipalities ceased to exist and were subsumed into other municipalities. The number of municipalities was reduced from 2,663 in 1961 to 2,586 in 1965, article 4 of the constitution states that each municipality must belong to only one of the four official language areas that were established in 1962–63. In the three officially unilingual language areas, a couple of municipalities in the vicinity of another language area must provide limited facilities for speakers of that other language. Lucien Harmegnies, Minister of the Interior in the government of Gaston Eyskens decided to continue the process of reorganization of Belgium. In 1971, the provisions of the Unity Law were extended and modified to apply to large agglomerations and it was another Minister of the Interior, Joseph Michel, who managed the process. On December 30,1975, the law regarding the merger of the municipalities was adopted, the merger became effective on January 1,1977. The merger of 1977 further reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium from 2,359 to 596, because of the specific nature of the reorganization in Antwerp, the law of December 30,1975 didnt enter into force for Antwerp until January 1,1983. The formerly independent municipalities were called districts and were given an advisory function, however, on January 1,2001 they were given an administrative function again. The Mayor is not only the head of the municipality, he or she is also the representative of the Regional, in that capacity, he or she is responsible for the execution of laws, decrees, ordinances and orders. The Mayor is also responsible for the maintenance of order in his or her municipality
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
4.
Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium
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Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities, three regions, and four language areas. For each of these types, the subdivisions together make up the entire country, in other words. The language areas were established by the Second Gilson Act, which entered force on August 2,1963. The division into language areas was included in the Belgian Constitution in 1970 and this is a schematic overview of the basic federal structure of Belgium as defined by Title I of the Belgian Constitution. Each of the entities either have their own Parliament and Government or their own Council, the language areas have no offices or powers and exist de facto as geographical circumscriptions, serving only to delineate the empowered subdivisions. The institutional communities are thus equally geographically determined, Belgian Communities do not officially refer directly to groups of people but rather to specific political, linguistic and cultural competencies of the country. There is no subnationality in Belgium, the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region each comprise five provinces. The Brussels-Capital Region is not a province, nor does it contain any, the three regions are further subdivided into 589 municipalities, which in general consist of several sub-municipalities. These sub-municipalities were independent municipalities in the past, but no longer serve an official purpose, the Federal State retains a considerable common heritage. This includes justice, defence, federal police, social security, public debt and other aspects of public finances, nuclear energy, the State is responsible for the obligations of Belgium and its federalized institutions towards the European Union and NATO. It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs and they supervise the provinces, municipalities and intercommunal utility companies. In several fields, the different levels each have their own say on specificities, each level can be involved in scientific research and international relations associated with its powers. Communities were created in 1970 as cultural communities with limited power, in 1980, more power was transferred from the federal state to these entities and they became simply communities. Both the Flemish and French Community have jurisdiction over the area of the Brussels-Capital Region, consequently, they do not have a defined number of inhabitants. The German-speaking Community is the community with an area over which they have sole jurisdiction as a community. It is located within the Walloon Region, which has transferred some regional powers to the German-speaking Community with regards to its area. The Flemish Region or Flanders occupies the part of Belgium. It has an area of 13,522 km2, or 44. 29% of Belgium
5.
Flemish Community
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The term community should then not be capitalized. State reforms in Belgium turned the country from a state into a federal one. Cultural communities were the first type of decentralisation in 1970, forming the Dutch, French, later on, in 1980, these became responsible for more cultural matters and were renamed to simply Community, the Dutch Community also being renamed to the Flemish Community. In the same state reform of 1980, the Flemish and Walloon Region were set up, in Flanders it was decided that the institutions of the Flemish Community would take up the tasks of the Flemish Region, so there is only one Flemish Parliament and one Flemish Government. Legally speaking, in the region of Brussel-Capital, the Flemish Community is responsible not for people but for Flemish institutions such as schools, theatres, libraries. The reason is no distinct sub-national status exists in Belgium. Yet, individuals living in Brussels can opt by their own choice for certain policies of the Flemish Community, Dutch is the official language of the Flemish Community. Minorities speak French, Yiddish, Turkish, Arabic, Berber, Italian, Spanish, English, though most of these groups are recent immigrants, since the Middle Ages, Jews have formed the oldest minority to retain its own identity. Compared with most areas in the Netherlands, the dialects of Flemish people still tend to be strong. In Dutch, these are often called tussentaal or, rather derogatorily, more recently, a number of local initiatives have been set up to save the traditional dialects and their diversity. In Brussels, the dialect is heavily influenced by French. Nowadays, most Flemings in Brussels do not speak the local dialect and this is due in part to the relatively large numbers of young Flemings coming to Brussels, after a long period of many more others moving out while French-speakers moved in. In certain municipalities along the border with the Walloon and the Brussels-Capital regions and these cover rights such as to receive official documentation in their own tongue. The community competencies there, are exercised by the two affected institutional communities, the Flemish Community therefore established a local elected council and executive to cater for intermediate-level decision making & public services. The VGC then recognised local, municipal institutions to care of the purely local public service in these community areas. Flanders has a radio and television broadcasting company, the Vlaamse Radio en Televisieomroep or VRT in Dutch. Since 1989, several companies for region-wide radio and television broadcasting have become established. There are also so-called regional broadcast companies of which the range is limited to smaller parts of the Flemish Region
6.
Flemish Region
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The Flemish Region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is simply referred to as Flanders. It occupies the part of Belgium and covers an area of 13,522 km2. It is one of the most densely populated regions of Europe with around 470 inhabitants per square kilometer, immediately after its establishment in 1980, the region transferred all its constitutional competencies to the Flemish Community. Thus, the current Flemish authorities represent all the Flemish people, hence, the Flemish Region is governed by the Flemish Community institutions. However, members of the Flemish Community parliament elected in the Brussels-Capital Region have no right to vote on Flemish regional affairs, the Flemish Region comprises five provinces, each consisting of administrative arrondissements that, in turn, contain municipalities. Brussels city, the seat of the Flemish parliament, is located within the Brussels-Capital Region, Brussels contains both the Flemish Community and the French Community, both having their institutions in Brussels. Flanders is home to a modern economy, with emphasis put on research. Many enterprises work closely with local knowledge and research centres to develop new products, De Lijn serves as the main public transport company, run by the Flemish government. It consists of buses and trams, TEC is the equivalent company in Wallonia, and MIVB-STIB in Brussels. The railway network run by the NMBS, however, is a federal responsibility, the Flemish government is also responsible for about 500 kilometers of regional roads and about 900 kilometers of highways in the territory of the Flemish Region. Other types of roads are roads and municipal roads. Approximately 5,500,000 people live in the area, the official language is Dutch, sometimes colloquially referred to as Flemish. The main dialect groups include West Flemish, East Flemish, Brabantian, French may be used for certain administrative purposes in a limited number of the so-called municipalities with language facilities around the Brussels-Capital Region and on the border with Wallonia. Rim municipalities are Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Sint-Genesius-Rode, Wemmel, Brussels was originally a Dutch-speaking city, but it was frenchified in the 19th and 20th century and is now largely French-speaking. A few municipalities in the Flemish agglomeration of Brussels are now also frenchified, municipalities with language facilities on the border with Wallonia are Bever, Herstappe, Mesen, Ronse, Spiere-Helkijn, Voeren. Communities and regions of Belgium Provinces of regions in Belgium De Vlaamse Leeuw Count of Flanders Flanders Flemish Flemish authorities, toerisme Vlaanderen French Flanders Frans-Vlaanderen The Flemish region reaches 6 million inhabitants
7.
Provinces of Belgium
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The country of Belgium is divided into three regions. Two of these regions, the Flemish Region or Flanders, and Walloon Region, the third region, the Brussels-Capital Region, is not divided into provinces, as it was originally only a small part of a province itself. Many of the provinces evolved from earlier duchies and counties of the name and similar location. At the time of the creation of Belgium in 1830, only nine provinces existed, including the province of Brabant and these divisions reflected political tensions between the French-speaking Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish, the Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual. The division into provinces is fixed by Article 5 of the Belgian Constitution, the provinces are subdivided into 43 administrative arrondissements, and further into 589 municipalities. These each had their own identities and governments, though in the modern period almost all the Belgian states became part of larger entities. Each of the provinces of Belgium takes its name from one of these predecessors. At the time of the independence of Belgium from the Netherlands in 1830, the first article of the Belgian Constitution said, Belgium is divided into provinces. These provinces are Antwerp, Brabant, West Flanders, East Flanders, Hainaut, Liège, Limburg, Luxembourg, Namur, in 1839 half of the province of Limburg became part of the Netherlands, which consequently has its own province of Limburg. In 1920, following the First World War, Belgium annexed the Eupen-Malmedy territory, during the second half of the 20th century, Belgium transitioned from a unitary state to a federal state with three Communities and three Regions. As part of the reforms, the province of Brabant was split in 1995 three ways, into two provinces and into the Brussels-Capital Region. The two new Brabant provinces became part of the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region respectively, the remaining eight provinces became part of these regions as well, so the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region each contain five provinces. The Provincial Councils are the bodies of the population of the provinces. This is the equivalent of the States-Provincial in the Netherlands, the numbers of seats in the Provincial Councils are proportional to the population of the province, the numbers were reduced in both Flanders and Wallonia, starting 2013. They are directly elected each six years, at the time of the municipal elections. Before 1994, the elections instead coincided with the national elections. Until then, the provincial councils also appointed Provincial Senators to the Belgian Senate, the executive branch was previously called the Permanent Deputation. In the Flemish Region it is now called the Deputation and it consists of the Governor
8.
Antwerp (province)
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Antwerp is the northernmost province both of the Flemish Region, also called Flanders, and of Belgium. It borders on North Brabant province of the Netherlands and the Belgian provinces of Limburg, Flemish Brabant and its capital is Antwerp which comprises the Port of Antwerp. It has an area of 2867 km² and with 1.8 million inhabitants it is the countrys most populous province, the province consists of 3 arrondissements, Antwerp, Mechelen and Turnhout. The eastern part of the province comprises the part of the Campine region. During the early Middle Ages the region was part of the Frankish Empire, the territory of the present day province belonged to several pagi of which the region around Antwerp belonged to the Pagus Renesium. The Pagus Toxandria stretched from North Brabant into the Campine region, to the south there was the Pagus Bracbatinse and the Pagus Hasbaniensis. In 843 the Carolingian Empire of Charlemagne was divided among his sons, in 974 Otto II established the Margraviate of Antwerp as a defence against the County of Flanders. In 1106, Henry V granted the Margraviate to Godfrey I of Leuven and his descendants would from 1235 onwards become the Dukes of Brabant and the region itself was the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant. In 1430 the Duchy became part of the Duchy of Burgundy until 1477 when it fell to the House of Habsburg. In 1713, at the end of the Spanish Succession War the region part of the Austrian Netherlands until 1794. On 1 October 1795 the former Austrian Netherlands were annexed by France under the French Directory, the modern province was created as the Department of the two Netes during the First French Empire. After the defeat of Napoleon, the became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as the province of Central Brabant, distinguishing it from North Brabant. In 1830, after Belgiums independence the province was renamed Antwerp, common with Flemish Brabant, North Brabant and Brussels, the local dialect is a Brabantian variety. The province of Antwerp has a council, elected every six years. The current governor is Cathy Berx, appointed in 2008 by the Flemish Government, the last elections were held on 14 October 2012. a, that each have 2 deputies. The three parties have a majority of 50 seats out of 72, highest point, Beerzelberg located in the municipality Putte. Most important rivers, Scheldt, Rupel, Grote Nete, Kleine Nete The province has a network of roads, railroads, canals, historically, the traffic infrastructure was an important element of connecting the Port of Antwerp with the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Both the Iron Rhine railroad and the E313 and E34 highway connect Antwerp with the Ruhr Area, the river Schelde, an important waterway, connects the Port of Antwerp with the North Sea
9.
Arrondissements of Belgium
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Arrondissements of Belgium are subdivisions below the provinces of Belgium. There are administrative, judicial and electoral arrondissements and these may or may not relate to identical geographical areas. The 43 administrative arrondissements are a level between the municipalities and the provinces. Brussels-Capital forms a single arrondissement for all 19 municipalities in the region by that name, Belgium had 27 judicial arrondissements until April 1,2014. Until 1999 the electoral districts for the election of the parliaments were electoral arrondissements, the arrondissement of Brussels-Capital is not part of any province and consequently forms its own electoral district
10.
Arrondissement of Antwerp
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The Arrondissement of Antwerp is one of the three administrative arrondissements in the Province of Antwerp, Belgium. It is both an administrative and a judicial arrondissement, the territory of the Judicial Arrondissement of Antwerp coincides with that of the Administrative Arrondissement of Antwerp. The Arrondissement of Antwerp was created in 1800 as the first arrondissement in the Department of Deux-Nèthes and it originally comprised the cantons of Antwerp, Boom, Berchem, Brecht, Ekeren and Zandhoven. In 1923, the municipalities of Burcht and Zwijndrecht in the Arrondissement of Sint-Niklaas were added to the arrondissement. The Administrative Arrondissement of Antwerp consists of the municipalities
11.
City
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A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
12.
Municipality
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It is to be distinguished from the county, which may encompass rural territory and/or numerous small communities such as towns, villages and hamlets. The term municipality may also mean the governing or ruling body of a given municipality, a municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district. The term is derived from French municipalité and Latin municipalis, a municipality can be any political jurisdiction from a sovereign state, such as the Principality of Monaco, or a small village, such as West Hampton Dunes, New York. The power of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to the state, municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax, property tax, and corporate income tax, but may also receive substantial funding from the state. Similar terms include Spanish ayuntamiento, also called municipalidad, Polish gmina, Dutch/Flemish Gemeente, in Australia, the term local government area is used in place of the generic municipality. Here, the LGA Structure covers only incorporated areas of Australia, incorporated areas are legally designated parts of states and territories over which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility. In Canada, municipalities are local governments established through provincial and territorial legislation, the Province of Ontario has different tiers of municipalities, including lower, upper, and single tiers. Types of upper tier municipalities in Ontario include counties and regional municipalities, nova Scotia also has regional municipalities, which include cities, counties, districts, or towns as municipal units. In India, a Nagar Palika or Municipality is a local body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more. Under the Panchayati Raj system, it directly with the state government. Generally, smaller cities and bigger towns have a Nagar Palika. Nagar Palikas are also a form of local self-government entrusted with duties and responsibilities. Such a corporation in Great Britain consists of a head as a mayor or provost, since local government reorganisation, the unit in England, Northern Ireland and Wales is known as a district, and in Scotland as a council area. A district may be awarded borough or city status, or can retain its district title, in Jersey, a municipality refers to the honorary officials elected to run each of the 12 parishes into which it is subdivided. This is the highest level of government in this jurisdiction. In the United States, municipality is usually understood as a city, town, village, or other local government unit, in the Peoples Republic of China, a direct-controlled municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing. In Taiwan, a municipality is a city with equal status to a province, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei. In Portuguese language usage, there are two words to distinguish the territory and the administrative organ, when referring to the territory, the word concelho is used, when referring to the organ of State, the word município is used
13.
Antwerp
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Antwerp is a city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the region of Flanders. With a population of 510,610, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium and its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, which is second behind Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary, the Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, the inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, lord, referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century. The city hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics, according to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands, eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giants own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan, a longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante Verpia, indicating land that forms by deposition in the curve of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a period between 600 and 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, however, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named Antverpia, but more something like an outpost with a river crossing. However, John Lothrop Motley argues, and so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, aan t werp is also possible. This warp is a hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide. Another word for werp is pol hence polders, historical Antwerp allegedly had its origins in a Gallo-Roman vicus. Excavations carried out in the oldest section near the Scheldt, 1952–1961, produced pottery shards, the earliest mention of Antwerp dates from the 4th century. In the 4th century, Antwerp was first named, having been settled by the Germanic Franks, the name was reputed to have been derived from anda and werpum. The Merovingian Antwerp was evangelized by Saint Amand in the 7th century, at the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate in 980, by the German emperor Otto I, in the 11th century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years known as the marquis of Antwerp. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michaels Abbey at Caloes
14.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
15.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
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Wilrijk
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Wilrijk is a district of the municipality and city of Antwerp in the Belgian province of Antwerp. Wilrijk had been a municipality before January 1,1983. This suburb is known as the Goat village, because of its Goat parade. Every five years this parade attracts a lot of tourists, the next one will be held in 2020. Although it is now part of the city of Antwerp, Wilrijk has kept its own distinct atmosphere, a mixture of modern and older neighbourhoods, this suburb has a good balance between residencial, commercial and industrial activities. Its facilities for sport and recreation in a green environment make it an area in which to live. This area was inhabited in 600 BC. This has been shown by the excavation of a Celtic burial site in Wilrijk, the total area of Wilrijk is 13.61 km² and it has 38.220 inhabitants. Probably the first time people lived in area was around 600 BC. In 1003 the first document appeared in which the name uuilrika was mentioned and this document tells about the existence in 743 AD of a community living around the central square in Wilrijk which is called Bist. The triangular shape of the Bist shows the Frankish past of Wilrijk, One of the current theories is that the name Wilrijk is actually derived from the Gallo-Roman word Villariacum. Evidence for the existence of a Roman villa was found in a nearby village Kontich, after the closing of the Zwyn and the decay of Bruges, the city of Antwerp became of more importance. At the end of the 15th century the foreign trading gilds moved from the city of Bruges to Antwerp and these foreigner were well received by the families in Antwerp. Some of the people from Antwerp escaped their busy lives in the center of the city and, attracted by the rural character of Wilrijk. These houses are called Hoven van plaisantie, some of these still exist even today, Klaverblad, Schoonselhof, Ieperman, Steytelinck, Middelheim, De Brandt, others didnt survive, Jezuietenhof, Ooievaarsnest, Hoonsnest, Groenenborgerhof, Elsdonkhof, Standonk, Korenbloem. But their names remain in the consciousness of the people living in Wilrijk through names of streets. On November 30,1589 the village was burnt by some Geuzen coming from Bergen op Zoom. It took Wilrijk 20 year to start reconstruction of the houses, in the middle of the 18th century an important road was constructed between Antwerp and Boom
17.
Berchem
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Berchem itself consists of three quarters, Oud Berchem, Groenenhoek and Nieuw Kwartier. Berchems total surface is over 1,500 acres, and it is inhabited by more than 40,000 citizens, after the decentralization of Antwerp in 2000, Berchem became a semi-independent district with its own legislative body, the so-called Districtsraad, and its own executive college. The District Council includes 25 members, directly elected for six-year terms by popular vote, the executive college comprises five Aldermen, including a District Mayor, who are installed by the District Council. The Zurenborg area hosts a concentration of Art Nouveau and other fin-de-siècle style townhouses. The main streets of interest are Cogels-Osylei, Transvaalstraat, and Waterloostraat, after the area was entitled for demolition in the 1960s to be replaced with a business and office complex, demolition could be prevented while the area got monumental status in the 1980s. In recent years, the became an attraction for architecture-minded visitors. The Driekoningenstraat - Statiestraat is the shopping and commercial area of Berchem. Though suffering competition from shopping centers, the retail highstreet still has an interesting mix of Belgian, local. The highstreet has recently been refurbished, giving space to pedestrians. The railway station of Antwerpen-Berchem, located within the district, is the second largest station in the city of Antwerp, with a few exceptions, such as the Thalys high-speed train, almost all trains stopping in Antwerp have a stop at Antwerpen-Berchem station. As of 2016 the Taiwanese airline EVA Air provides shuttle bus services to and from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol from Berchem, the service is co-operated with Reizen Lauwers NV. Berchem District Official Webpage Greater Antwerp Official Webpage
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Deurne, Belgium
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Deurne is the second largest district of the municipality of Antwerp, Belgium, and has 69,408 inhabitants. Deurne is best known for its environment with the biggest park in Antwerp Rivierenhof. During the Ancien régime Deurne was nothing more than part of the Eastern hinterland of Antwerp, like many dwellings it settled on the crossroads of a river and a connection route. There are indications that Deurne existed in prehistoric and Roman times, Deurne consisted mainly of sparsely populated farmland. However, as a result of the increasing wealth of the Antwerp population. Typically, merchants, diplomats, wealthy artists would escape to their Hof van Plaisantie, some country houses in Deurne were, Sterckxhof, Papenhof, Lakbors, Bisschoppenhof, Gallifort, Inkborsch, Bosuil, Ertbrugge & Venneborg. Although most country houses were destroyed over the centuries, some like Sterckxhof or Bisschoppenhof survived, further surviving evidence of this aristocratic history of Deurne is the St Fredegand Church and the adjacent cemetery. Although work started under his reign in 1823, work wasnt completed until 1874, the effect of this canal was to establish a permanent barrier north of Deurne, separating it from Merksem. In the south the Grote Schijn would form the barrier of Deurne. The effect of both barriers was to enhance a feeling for Deurne. This was further promoted by the establishment of the Brialmont fortifications around Antwerp, Deurne was split apart and the western part of Deurne was to become a separate municipality. The rest of Deurne now lay outside the enceinte and became physically and mentally more separated from Antwerp, because of the barriers constructed in the nineteenth century urbanization would only begin in the twentieth century. Many large scale urban functions were dropped in the area previously occupied by the Brialmont-fortifications. Urban planning started in 1913 and although the plan was never fully realised it did determine the spatial structure of Deurne. A real demographic explosion happened because of urban planning and the need for many Antwerp residents to find modern housing. The population grew from 15,432 in 1920 to 52,303 in 1935, world War II halted this evolution, mainly because of the V-2 bombardments. After 1945 the growth of Deurne started again and in the 1960s social housing & other community projects further enhanced this new identity of Deurne. From 1972 onward Deurne was subject to the exodus and the urban sprawl whereby people moved from the dense urban centres towards the suburbs
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Borsbeek
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Borsbeek is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Borsbeek proper, on January 1,2006 Borsbeek had a total population of 10,257. The total area is 3.92 km² which gives a density of 2,617 inhabitants per km². Media related to Borsbeek at Wikimedia Commons Official website
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Boechout
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Boechout is a municipality of Belgium located in the Flemish province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Boechout proper and Vremde, on January 1,2006 Boechout had a total population of 12,090. The total area is 20.66 km² which gives a density of 585 inhabitants per km². Boechout also hosts the Sfinks Festival, jan Frans Willems, writer Media related to Boechout at Wikimedia Commons Official Boechout & Vremde website
21.
Hove
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Hove /ˈhoʊv/ is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a conurbation with Brighton and some smaller towns. As part of government reform, Brighton and Hove were merged, to form the borough of Brighton. In 2000, the new borough officially attained city status, Hove is bordered by Brighton to the east and Portslade-by-Sea in the west, the distance between the boundaries being some 2.25 mi. During mid 19th-century building work near Palmeira Square, workmen levelled a substantial burial mound, a prominent feature of the landscape since 1200 BC, the 20 feet -high tumulus yielded, among other treasures, the Hove amber cup. Made of translucent red Baltic Amber and approximately the size as a regular china tea cup. There are entries for Brighton and Portslade and small settlements like Hangleton. Hove is an ancient coastal settlement with St Andrews Church being established in the 12th century, Hove remained insignificant for centuries, consisting of just a single street running north-south some 250m from the church, which by the 16th century was recorded as being in ruins. Hangleton Manor is a well-preserved 16th-century flint manor building and it is believed to have been built c.1540 for Richard Belingham, twice High Sheriff of Sussex, whose initials are carved into a fireplace, and whose coat of arms adorns a period plaster ceiling. The Manor is currently serving as a pub-restaurant and whilst it was once on open downland, however, The Ship Inn had been built at the seaward end of the street in around 1702. The census of 1801 recorded only 101 residents, by 1821, the year the Prince Regent was crowned George IV, Hove was still a small village but the population had risen to 312. The dwellings were still clustered on either side of Hove Street and this isolated location was ideal for smuggling and there was considerable illicit activity. Hove smugglers became notorious, with often being stored in the now partially repaired St. Andrews Church. Tradition has it that The Ship Inn was a rendezvous for the smugglers. In 1818 there was a battle on Hove beach between revenue men and smugglers, from which the latter emerged as the victors. As part of the drive by Parliament to combat smuggling. Also at the bottom of Hove Street was the bull-ring, at a bull-bait in 1810 the bull escaped, scattering spectators before being recaptured and dragged back to the ring. This was the last bull-bait to take place in Hove, the fertile coastal plain west of the Brighton boundary had significant deposits of brickearth and by c.1770 a brickfield had been established on the site of what would become Brunswick Square
22.
Edegem
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Edegem is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Edegem proper, on January 1,2006 Edegem had a total population of 21,668. The total area is 8.65 km² which gives a density of 2,504 inhabitants per km². The old Sint-Antoniuskerk is no longer open to the public and it is not sure when it was first built. The absence of heavy industry makes Edegem a typical commuter town, despite its location next to the metropolis of the city of Antwerp, Edegem is not fully urbanized. Sint-Antoniuskerk The Sint-Antoniuskerk is a church that was built between the 16th and 17th century. The Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes In 1884 a cave was built, after the present at the site of Our Lady of Lourdes. It became a popular place of worship when truckloads of Christians came to visit the site. When the population of Edegem grew in the beginning of the 20th century the Sint-Antoniuskerk in the center of town became too small, thus plans were made to build an expansion. But when World War I broke out in 1914, the expansion was delayed, the church was designed by architect Louis De Vooght to be a neo-Byzantine basilique. Construction began in September 1931 and ended in the first half of 1933, in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI gave the Basilica of Edegem the official status of basilica minor. Kasteel Hof Ter Linden Kasteel Hof Ter Linden is a Neoclassical villa in Edegem and its origins can be traced back to the early 15th century. In 1587–88 the estate was destroyed by Irish soldiers, reconstruction began in 1607, in 1725 it became a Hof van Plaisantie and in 1770–1773 the current Neoclassical facade was built. An impressive alley of Lindentrees, planted in 1756, connects the castle with the Sint-Anoniuskerk, in the 20th century the castle was inhabited by Baron and Baroness de Roest dAlkmade. Marie Gevers, novelist, born at Edegem, on 30 December 1883, leo Tindemans, former prime minister of Belgium, diplomat, professor and chairman of the European Peoples Party. Willy Vandersteen, world-renowned creator of books, died August 28,1990. François-Xavier de Donnea, former Belgian defence minister, mayor of the City of Brussels, born at Edegem, christine Van Broeckhoven, molecular biologist and professor in Molecular genetics. Ilse Heylen, judoka and bronze winner at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens
23.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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Minerva (automobile)
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The Minerva was a prominent Belgian luxury automobile manufactured from 1902 until 1938. The company became defunct in 1956, in 1883, a young Dutchman, Sylvain de Jong settled in Antwerp, Belgium. Minerva started out manufacturing standard safety bicycles in 1897, before in 1900 expanding into light cars and motocyclettes and they produced lightweight clip-on engines that mounted below the bicycle front down tube, specifically for Minerva bicycles, but also available in kit form suitable for almost any bicycle. The engine drove a belt turning a large gear attached to the side of the rear wheel opposite to the chain. By 1901 the kit engine was a 211cc unit developing 1.5 hp, comfortably cruising at 30 km/h at 1,500 rpm, capable of a top speed of 50 km/h, and getting fuel consumption in the range of 3 L/100 km. These kits were exported around the world to countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Minerva engines exported to the UK powered the very first Triumph, among others. Motorcycle production would continue until 1909 or 1914, and during this period Minerva became one of the worlds premier names in motorcycles, in 1902 De Jong added cars to his production as well with a 6 hp four-cylinder model. In 1903 he founded Société Anonyme Minerva Motors in Berchem, volume car production began in 1904 with a range of two-, three- and four-cylinder models with chain drive and metal clad wooden chassis and the Minervette cyclecar. The 8-litre Kaiserpreis won the Belgian Circuit des Ardennes race in 1907, Charles S Rolls was a Minerva dealer in England selling the 2. 9-litre 14 hp. The most important market for the manufacturer remained England, where at £105 the small 636 cc single-cylinder Minervette was the cheapest car on the market, followed by the Netherlands, in 1908, Minerva obtained a worldwide Knight Engine license. The Knight motor, developed by Charles Yale Knight in the United States, used sleeve valves. All future Minervas would use these engines, sporting successes continued with the new engines including the Austrian Alpine Trials and Swedish Winter Trials. Customers for the Minerva would include kings of Belgium, Sweden and Norway, Henry Ford, during World War I Sylvain de Jong and his engineers were based in Amsterdam where they maintained development of their automobiles. Minerva cars were used for hit and run attacks against the Germans initially with rifle fire and these vehicles became increasingly sophisticated until trench warfare robbed them of the mobility needed for their hit and run tactics. In 1920, they returned to Belgium to restart the production of cars with the 20CV3. 6-litre four-cylinder. The manufacturers star rose not only in Europe, but in the United States as well where American film stars, politicians, the Minerva had the same quality as the Rolls-Royce, but was slightly less expensive. In 1923, smaller models were introduced, the 2-litre four-cylinder 15CV and 3. 4-litre six-cylinder 20CV with standard four-wheel brakes, in 1927, the 30CV was replaced with the 6-litre AK and also a new 2-litre six, the 12-14, was introduced. Large cars continued to be a specialty of Minervas, and in 1930 the then almost-compulsory-for-the-time straight eight was introduced in two sizes, the 6. 6-litre AL and the 4-litre AP, the last Minerva was the 2-litre M4 of 1934 but it did not sell well
25.
Luftwaffe
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The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the combined German Wehrmacht military forces during World War II. During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base, with the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe was officially established on 26 February 1935. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a testing ground for new doctrines. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwaders, during World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely, the Luftwaffe proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the Luftwaffes fighter arm, in addition to its service in the West, the Luftwaffe operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. In January 1945, during the stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the Luftwaffe made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority. After the defeat of Germany, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946, the Luftwaffe had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history, Hermann Göring and later Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim. Throughout the war, the force was responsible for war crimes, one of the forerunners of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air Service, was founded in 1910 with the name Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, most often shortened to Fliegertruppe. It was renamed Luftstreitkräfte on 8 October 1916, after the defeat of Germany, the service was dissolved on 8 May 1920 under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which also mandated the destruction of all German military aircraft. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, to train its pilots on the latest combat aircraft, Germany solicited the help of its future enemy, the Soviet Union, which was also isolated in Europe. This base was known as 4th squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army. Hundreds of Luftwaffe pilots and technical personnel visited, studied and were trained at Soviet air force schools in locations in Central Russia. The first steps towards the Luftwaffes formation were undertaken just months after Adolf Hitler came to power, in April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium was established. Görings control over all aspects of aviation became absolute, on 25 March 1933 the Deutschen Luftsportverband absorbed all private and national organizations, while retaining its sports title. On 15 May 1933, all military organizations in the RLM were merged, forming the Luftwaffe. The |Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps was formed in 1937 to give pre-military flying training to male youths, military-age members of the NSFK were drafted to the Luftwaffe. As all such prior NSFK members were also Nazi Party members, the absence of Göring in planning and production matters was fortunate
26.
Airplane
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An airplane or aeroplane is a powered, fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine or propeller. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations, the broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research. Commercial aviation is a massive industry involving the flying of tens of thousands of daily on airliners. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, the Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903, recognized as the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight. They built on the works of George Cayley dating from 1799, between 1867 and 1896, the German pioneer of human aviation Otto Lilienthal also studied heavier-than-air flight. Following its limited use in World War I, aircraft continued to develop. Airplanes had a presence in all the battles of World War II. The first jet aircraft was the German Heinkel He 178 in 1939, the first jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, was introduced in 1952. The Boeing 707, the first widely successful commercial jet, was in service for more than 50 years. Aéroplane originally referred just to the wing, as it is a plane moving through the air, in an example of synecdoche, the word for the wing came to refer to the entire aircraft. In the United States and Canada, the airplane is used for powered fixed-wing aircraft. In the United Kingdom and most of the Commonwealth, the aeroplane is usually applied to these aircraft. Many stories from antiquity involve flight, such as the Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus, and this machine may have been suspended for its flight. Some of the earliest recorded attempts with gliders were those by the 9th-century poet Abbas ibn Firnas, leonardo da Vinci researched the wing design of birds and designed a man-powered aircraft in his Codex on the Flight of Birds. In 1799, George Cayley set forth the concept of the airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion. Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, in 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first powered flight, by having his glider LAlbatros artificiel pulled by a horse on a beach. Then Alexander F. Mozhaisky also made some innovative designs, in 1883, the American John J. Montgomery made a controlled flight in a glider. Other aviators who made similar flights at that time were Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, sir Hiram Maxim built a craft that weighed 3.5 tons, with a 110-foot wingspan that was powered by two 360-horsepower steam engines driving two propellers
27.
Bombing of Guernica
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The bombing of Guernica was an aerial bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The town was being used as a communications center behind the frontline, the attack gained infamy because it involved the deliberate targeting of civilians by a military air force. The number of victims is still disputed, the Basque government reported 1,654 people killed at the time, an English source used by the Air War College claims 400 civilians died. Russian archives reveal 800 deaths on 1 May 1937, but this number may not include victims who died of their injuries in hospitals or whose bodies were discovered buried in the rubble. The bombing is the subject of a famous painting by Pablo Picasso. It was also depicted in a woodcut by the German artist Heinz Kiwitz, there is also a short film from 1950 by Alain Resnais entitled Guernica. Guernica, in the Basque province of Biscay, and 30 kilometres east of Bilbao, has long been a centre of great significance to the Basque people. Its Gernikako Arbola is an oak tree that symbolizes traditional freedoms for the Biscayan people and, by extension, not only was Guernica considered the identity of Basque, but it was also considered the spiritual capital of Basque people. Guernica has always celebrated as the home of Basque liberties. Guernica was also the location of the Spanish weapons manufacturer Astra-Unceta y Cía, at the time of the bombing, the population of Guernica was 7,000 people, and the battlefront was 30 kilometres away. Advances by Nationalist troops led by Generalísimo Francisco Franco had eaten into the controlled by the Republican Government. The Basque Government, a regional administrative body formed by Basque nationalists, sought to defend Biscay. At the time of the raid, Guernica represented a strategic point for the Republican forces. It stood between the Nationalists and capture of Bilbao, Bilbao was seen as key to bringing the war to a conclusion in the north of Spain. Guernica also was the path of retreat for the Republicans from the northeast of Biscay. The town also housed two Basque army battalions, although it had no air defenses, and it was thought that no air cover could be expected due to recent losses of the Republican Air Force. Monday 26 April was market day, there were more than 10,000 people in the former Basque capital, generally speaking, a market day would have attracted people from the surrounding areas to Guernica to conduct business. Market days consisted of farmers bringing in their crops to sell to the village people
28.
V-2 rocket
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The V-2, technical name Aggregat 4, was the worlds first long-range guided ballistic missile. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to cross the boundary of space with the launch of MW18014 on 20 June 1944. Research into military use of long range rockets began when the studies of graduate student Wernher von Braun attracted the attention of the German Army, a series of prototypes culminated in the A-4, which went to war as the V-2. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets during the war, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. As Germany collapsed, teams from the Allied forces—the United States, the United Kingdom, Wernher von Braun and over 100 key V-2 personnel surrendered to the Americans. Eventually, many of the original V-2 team ended up working at the Redstone Arsenal, the US also captured enough V-2 hardware to build approximately 80 of the missiles. The Soviets gained possession of the V-2 manufacturing facilities after the war, re-established V-2 production, in the late 1920s, a young Wernher von Braun bought a copy of Hermann Oberths book, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen. Starting in 1930, he attended the Technical University of Berlin, von Braun was working on his doctorate when the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun, von Brauns thesis, Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket, was kept classified by the German Army and was not published until 1960. By the end of 1934, his group had launched two rockets that reached heights of 2.2 and 3.5 km. At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist Robert H. Goddards research, before 1939, German engineers and scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions. Von Braun used Goddards plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat series of rockets, during 28–30 September 1939, Der Tag der Weisheit conference met at Peenemünde to initiate the funding of university research to solve rocket problems. By late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the essential to the success of the A-4. The four key technologies for the A-4 were large liquid-fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, gyroscopic guidance, at the time, Adolf Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2, he pointed out that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost. Hitler was sufficiently impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and needed a weapon to maintain German morale. The V-2s were constructed at the Mittelwerk site by prisoners from Mittelbau-Dora, the A-4 used a 74% ethanol/water mixture for fuel and liquid oxygen for oxidizer. The rocket reached a height of 80 km after shutting off the engine, the fuel and oxidizer pumps were driven by a steam turbine, and the steam was produced by concentrated hydrogen peroxide with sodium permanganate catalyst. Both the alcohol and oxygen tanks were an aluminium-magnesium alloy, the combustion burner reached a temperature of 2,500 to 2,700 °C
29.
Agfa-Gevaert
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Agfa-Gevaert N. V. is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the printing, Agfa HealthCare supplies hospitals and other care organisations with imaging products and systems, as well as information systems. Agfa Specialty Products supplies products to industrial markets. It is part of the Agfa Materials organization, in addition to the Agfa Specialty Products activities, Agfa Materials also supplies film and related products to Agfa Graphics and Agfa HealthCare. Agfa film and cameras were once prominent consumer products, however, in 2004, the consumer imaging division was sold to a company founded via management buyout. AgfaPhoto GmbH, as the new company was called, filed for bankruptcy after just one year, the brands are now licensed to other companies by AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH, a holding firm. Following this sale, Agfa-Gevaerts commerce today is 100% business-to-business, headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium, Agfa has sales organisations in 40 countries. In countries where Agfa does not have its own sales organisation, at the end of 2011, the company had 11,728 employees worldwide. Agfa has manufacturing plants around the world, the largest production and research centres are based in Belgium, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and China. Net sales for 2011 totalled 3,023 million euros, Agfa is organised into three business groups as follows, Digital and analogue prepress systems, software, and consumables. Consumables, graphic film, analogue and digital printing plates, anapurna and Jeti printer families, typically used to produce posters, banners and displays. M-Press family high-end flatbed presses, designed to replace traditional equipment for all possible screen printing jobs, developer of medical imaging information systems. Agfa Healthcares main offices are in Mortsel, Ghent, Waterloo, Vienna, PACS for cardiology IT and CardioVascular Information Systems. Agfa Specialty Products supplies products to a variety of industries, traditional film products Sound recording film and print film for the movie industry. Films, chemicals, photo paper and software for aerial photography, microfilm Photo-tooling films for the production of Printed Circuit Boards. Nondestructive testing film (as the exclusive manufacturer of General Electrics NDT X-ray films, Materials and consumables for the production of ID-documents. Conductive polymer materials for the production of transparent electrodes used in electronic devices. Membranes for the electrolysis of water,1867 The company Aktiengesellschaft für Anilinfabrikation was founded in Rummelsburg as a manufacturer of dyes and stains
30.
Alex Agnew
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Alex Agnew is a Belgian stand-up comedian and hard rock vocalist. According to the Nigel Williams autobiography Had ik maar een vak geleerd and this is somewhat contradicted by the 2011 show Larger than Life, celebrating the best of Agnew 10 years on stage. Undisputedly however, he attained nationwide fame when he became the first Belgian to win the prestigious Dutch Leids Cabaret Festival in February 2003, after this initial success he has been performing in comedy shows like De Bovenste Plank and Comedy Casino on the Belgian television channel Canvas. Agnew is the son of an English father, footballer John Agnew, and he is influenced by action movies, superheroes, comic books and a great variety of music, ranging from Tom Jones and musicals to heavy metal and the new-age music his sister played. His rock n roll comedy is mostly a mix of blue comedy, besides his comedy activities, he is also the lead vocalist of hard rock band Diablo Blvd. His first solo show, KA-BOOM. Early 2007 Agnew kicked off his new show, Morimos Solamente and he toured Belgium with the show More Human than Human in the 2009-2010 season. On September 16,2012, Agnew announced his retirement from stand-up comedy on his official website. He cites his commitment to Diablo Blvd, Agnews girlfriend runs a popular comedy club, The Joker, in Antwerp. KA-BOOM Morimos Solamente More Human than Human Larger than Life Interesting Times Interesting Times, The Legend Ends 1st in Leids Cabaret Festival Alex Agnews Website Alex Agnews MySpace
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Bart De Wever
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Bart Albert Liliane De Wever is a Belgian politician. Since January 2013 he has been Mayor of Antwerp, following the 2012 municipal elections, born in Mortsel, De Wever attended the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, graduating with a licentiate in History. As a student he was a member of the Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond and he is a former editor-in-chief of the KVHV newspapers Tegenstroom and Ons Leven. He was employed as an assistant working on the Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging. In 2004, he was elected as president of the N-VA with 95% of the votes and he was the only candidate that stood for the election. De Wever went through a stretch in 2006 when he accepted the conservative-liberal Jean-Marie Dedecker as an N-VA member. In order to reconcile the party, Dedecker had to leave, although he was extensively criticised, the local N-VA leaders permitted De Wever to remain as N-VA president. In the 2009 regional elections, his party won an unexpectedly high 13% of the votes, under his presidency his party gained around 30% during federal elections held in June 2010. De Wever himself won the most preference votes of the Dutch-speaking region, De Wever has visited British Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street on a number of occasions. He is an admirer of Edmund Burke and of his political philosophy. The historian Bruno de Wever is his older brother, Member of the district council of Berchem Member of the Flemish Parliament. Nationally the two parties were almost even with 27 seats for the N-VA and 26 for the PS, on 6 December 2011 the Di Rupo I Government was sworn in. De Wever and the N-VA were not included in the makeup of this government, in 1996, he was photographed attending a conference held by the French extreme-right Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. De Wever justified his attendance by arguing that in a democracy everyone should have the right to express his opinion, and I always prefer to get my information first hand than to get it in a filtered way. Those who were in power at the time had to take decisions in difficult times. I dont find it very courageous to stigmatise them now and he later issued an apology to representatives of Antwerps Jewish community. Following these events, in an op-ed published in Le Monde, De Wever sued Mertens for this allegation. In July 2016, he called Angela Merkel personally responsible for the mess she has created in relation to the 2016 terrorist attacks in Germany
32.
Timo Descamps
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Timo Descamps is a Belgian actor, voice actor and singer. He is best known for his roles on the Flemish soap operas Spring. In 2007, Descamps released his first music single, Phonecall, in January 2010, it was announced that Descamps would be co-starring in the film Judas Kiss, playing the character of Shane Lyons. Timos television debut was in 2004, appearing on the Belgian soap opera Familie and his character, Ghijs, was a problem child in the home of Marc and Mieke. After growing up and leaving home, Ghijs returned for the funeral of Marc, from 2005 to 2008, Descamps portrayed Jo De Klein, the new bass player of the music group in Spring. In his spare time, Jo was a painter and loved strange pets, he had a pet Tarantula called Mary, in 2006, Descamps competed on Steracteur sterartiest, a televised Belgian singing competition, finishing in third place. In 2009, Descamps played the role of Nelson Batenburg on the Dutch series Spangas, in addition to his acting roles, Descamps has worked as an onscreen host for Disney Channel The Netherlands & Flanders and for the Belgian VT4 Network. In 2007, he hosted the show Superstar, The Battle on Nickelodeon and he is currently hosting for OutTV. Timo Descamps made his motion picture debut in the 2011 film Judas Kiss, released by Blue Seraph Productions, Judas Kiss is also Descamps feature debut to an American and international audience. In September 2008, Descamps played Dolf Vega in the version of Crusade in Jeans. In 2009, Descamps publicly announced his homosexuality and relationship with Danny de Jong, in 2007, Descamps released his a single Phonecall, which rose to number 36 on the Ultratop 50. Three years later, in 2010, he released the single Like It Rough, in 2011, Descamps released his third single, entitled Tomorrow. Official Website IMDb profile Judas Kiss Official Website
33.
Luc Tuymans
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Luc Tuymans is a Belgian artist who lives and works in Antwerp. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today and his signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory. Tuymans was born in Mortsel near Antwerp, Belgium, tuymanss mothers family had worked in the Dutch resistance and hid refugees. His Belgian Flemish father later revealed that two of his brothers had been in the Hitler Youth, Tuymans began his studies in the fine arts at the Sint-Lukasinstituut in Brussels in 1976. At the age of 19 Tuymans encountered a series of El Greco paintings in Budapest while working as a guard for a European railway company. Subsequently he studied arts at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre in Brussels, Belgium and at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. He abandoned painting in 1982, studying art history at the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Tuymans emerged in at a time when there were not many new contemporary painters making, or using imagistic paintings, others include John Currin or Elizabeth Peyton. Tuymans first made his mark in the 1980s, when he began to explore Europes memories of World War II with harsh, elegant paintings like Gas Chamber, which depicts the Dachau concentration camp. The artist later aroused interest in 2000 with his series of paintings titled Mwana Kitoko. The works were exhibited in 2000 at the David Zwirner Gallery, the most noted painting was of the king himself in his white military uniform. Integral to the Tuymans practice is the reliance on existing visual materials, including drawings, photographs and he started to use Polaroids in 1995. The blurriness is actually sharp because, unlike with Gerhard Richter, it is not wiped away and these statements are characteristic of Tuymans’s self-conscious and tenaciously semantic shaping of the philosophical content in his work. Tuymans often works in series, a method whereby one image can generate another and he continuously analyses and distils his images, making many drawings, photocopies and watercolours before making the high-intensity oil paintings. Between 2007 and 2009 Tuymans worked on a triptych, which began with Les Revenants and Restoration about the power of the Jesuit Order, the Management of Magic, relating to the world phenomenon Walt Disney, and ended with Against the Day, a series on TV reality shows. Instead he presented a simple still-life executed on a scale, deliberately ignoring all reference to world events. Tuymans represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale in 2001, in 1992, Tuymans was invited to show at the documenta for the first time. Tuymans also curates exhibitions, and is organizing the second in a series of exhibitions that brings together Belgian. His exhibition, The State of Things, Brussels/Beijing traveled from the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, in 2010-2011 he was the guest curator for the inaugural Bruges Central art festival in Bruges, Belgium
34.
Jos Vandeloo
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Josephus Albertus Jos Vandeloo was a Belgian writer and poet. He grew up in a family from Zonhoven and graduated as a chemist for the mining industry. After the war he started working in the mine as a coal specialist, at the same time he also studied Dutch and French literature at the Royal Academy and the Higher Institute for Arts in Antwerp. After his career in the mine, he director of the Belgian division of the publisher Manteau. In the sixties he was for a sports commentator for the Belgian Radio. Since 1963 he has lived in Mortsel near Antwerp and he made his debut in 1955 with the collection of poems, Speelse parade and became well known with the stories De muur en Het gevaar. In 1982, he devoted himself full-time to writing, in his work he generally describes the negative impact of modern society, such as loneliness and alienation and he tries to strive for an idealistic, paradisaical environment. He not only wrote novels, stories and poetry but also wrote screenplays for television. His work has translated into several European languages and he has won several awards. J. Van Bork en P. J. Verkruijsse, De Nederlandse en Vlaamse auteurs
35.
Hove, Belgium
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Hove is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Hove proper, on January 1,2006, Hove had a total population of 8,307. The total area is 5.99 km² which gives a density of 1,388 inhabitants per km². The municipality lies approximately 9 kilometres from the city of Antwerp and it is a small community, and is said to be one of the most expensive areas in Belgium. Many people pay large sums of money to live there because it is one of the safest places in Belgium, hugo Matthysen Bart Peeters Jan Leyers - singer-songwriter/philosopher/TV-producer Van Den Weygaert, Luc. Ouderits, Hove,2010,26 p. Van Den Weygaert, Hove, culturele en toeristische verkenningen, Edit. Ouderits, Hove,2012,24 p. Van Gysel, bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van Hove, Edit. Jos Verheyen, Boechout,1957,80 p. Media related to Hove, Belgium at Wikimedia Commons Hove official website
36.
Aartselaar
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Aartselaar is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Aartselaar proper, on January 1,2006 Aartselaar had a total population of 14,375. The total area is 10.93 km² which gives a density of 1,316 inhabitants per km². The municipality of Aartselaar is located in the outskirts of Antwerp. It is known for its 1801 windmill as well as the race called Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen. The origin of the name of the town is obscure, the most probable etymology refers to Arcelar, media related to Aartselaar at Wikimedia Commons
37.
Boom, Belgium
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Boom is a Belgian town, located in both the arrondissement and province of Antwerp. On 1 January 2006 Boom had a population of 16,096. The total area is 7.37 km² which gives a density of 2,185 inhabitants per km². History of this community started in the late 1300s, the boom in the population growth of Boom happened some time during the 19th century. In Boom, people venerated a miraculous statue of our lady of Boom, Boom is located between three big cities, and is situated along the Rupel river. Because of the presence of clay around Boom, the region is known for and has many clay pits. Egidius Aerts, flautist and composer Bobbejaan Schoepen, singer-songwriter, guitarist and he was also an actor, fantasist and founder of the Bobbejaanland amusement park in Belgium. Luc Van der Kelen, journalist at Het Laatste Nieuws, glen De Boeck, football player and coach. Mano Mundo, worldmusic festival in De Schorre, tomorrowland, EDM World-famous and largest Dance Music festival in the world, that more than 400,000 people have attended since its 2005 launch. Feria Andaluza, Spanish festival in De Schorre, K. Rupel Boom F. C. Football club, currently playing in the Belgian Third Division. Kangeroes Boom, Basketball club, currently playing in the second division, braxgata, Hockey club, currently playing in the first division. Hockey club of the year by the European Hockey Federation in 2009, fudji Yama Boom-Niel-Schelle, Judo club, founded in 1958 Boom municipality official website
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Brasschaat
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Brasschaat is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Brasschaat proper, in November 2006, Brasschaat won the LivCom-Award 2006 for the most liveable municipality in the world. The history of Brasschaat started with Celtic settlements, the Gallic tribe of the Belgae displaced them and were in turn conquered by the Romans, who built a major road in the area. After the Germanic invasions in the 3rd and 4th century, the region was Christianized. In the Middle Ages the little river Laar, flowing through the woods of the municipality, the first mention of Breesgata, sometimes also spelled Brexgata, dates from 1269. In 1482, a convent of nuns was founded here, traces of which can still be seen today, the village of Brasschaat belonged geographically to the Campine region, but politically and ecclesiastically was part of the Bishopric of Liège until 1569. At that time, the village had about 4,500 inhabitants and 383 horses, the end of the 16th century was particularly hard on the population. In the span of 25 years, the wars between Catholics and Protestants greatly reduced the population to 420 people and 59 horses, at the end of the plague pandemic that struck the community in 1610, only 26 families were left. The guild of Sint-Antonius, currently still the oldest local association, was founded in 1667, in 1823, Brasschaat became theoretically a municipality of its own, separate from Ekeren. It named its own mayor and municipal council the following year and its independence would however be recognized only in 1830. Because of its position in the defense of the port of Antwerp. The Brasschaat fort, still today, was built in 1912. Between 1937 and 1939 the fortifications were expanded with additional bunkers, many of these old military buildings nowadays host colonies of bats. In 1945, a school in Brasschaat run by Averbode Abbey was hit by a V-1 flying bomb, killing a monk, the ancient Brexgata name is found in the designation of an international university association seated in Strasbourg. The name was chosen in homage to the municipality of Brasschaat, the yearly Dorpsdag takes place on the first Sunday in September and features a procession commemorating the consecration of the main chapel in 1753. Brasschaat is known as a park town and this includes various woods and former shooting ranges. One of the best known nature preservations around Brasschaat is De Inslag, the De Mik castle, complete with drawbridge, is surrounded by English gardens and an arboretum. The Brasschaat area also houses a farm and an artillery museum
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Brecht, Belgium
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Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in-t-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts, on January 1,2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464. The total area is 90.84 km² which gives a density of 291 inhabitants per km². Brecht is a municipality in the north of the Antwerp province. Noorderkempen, a station on the HSL4, opened on 15 June 2009. Leonard Lessius, moral theologian, born in Brecht Jean Kockerols, Roman Catholic bishop Brecht Abbey Official website Tourism in Brecht
40.
Essen, Belgium
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Essen is a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp which comprises the towns of Essen Centrum, Heikant, Horendonk, Wildert, Statie and Hoek. In 2007, Essen had a population of 17,143, the total area is 47.48 km² which gives a population density of 358 inhabitants per km². The town is near the border with the Netherlands and it has a railway station, and is the last stop in Belgium for rail services travelling north. The station before Essen is Wildert, the next station is Roosendaal, North Brabant, Netherlands. The Grand Prix Rouwmoer is a race held in December
41.
Hemiksem
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Hemiksem is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Hemiksem proper, on January 1,2010 Hemiksem had a total population of 10,166. The total area is 5.44 km² which gives a density of 1,868 inhabitants per km². It is renowned in Flanders for its Casa Blanca festival, witch at its peak had more than 80.000 visitors over three days. The most notable sight in Hemiksem is the 13th century St. Bernards Abbey, media related to Hemiksem at Wikimedia Commons Official website
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Kalmthout
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Kalmthout is a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the villages of Kalmthout, Achterbroek and Nieuwmoer, on January 1,2007 Kalmthout had a population of 17,508. The total area is 59.45 square kilometres, Kalmthout has a population density of 294 inhabitants per km². In addition to Kalmthout itself, the municipality contains the communities of Dorp-Heuvel, Heide, Achterbroek. The Arboretum Kalmthout is one of Belgiums most beautiful botanical gardens, the Kalmthoutse Heide is a nature reserve of nearly 10,000 acres spanning the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. The Kalmthoutse Heide is a big park in Kalmthout. It is open to the public and has more that 15 different routes that can carry for 10s of kilometers, media related to Kalmthout at Wikimedia Commons Kalmthout Official website Scouts Kalmthout heuvel Official website Arboretum Kalmthout Official website Kalmthoutse Heide
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Kapellen, Belgium
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Kapellen is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality consists only of the town of Kapellen proper, on January 1,2006 Kapellen had a total population of 25,948. The total area is 37.11 km² which gives a density of 699 inhabitants per km². A number of neighbourhoods in Kapellen have a character and are characterized by their villaparcs, exclusive landhouses. Many who flee the always busy town enjoy Kapellens peaceful nature, the towns football club is R. Cappellen F. C. and has played at the national level for many years
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Mortsel
