Tegelen

Last updated
Tegelen
Tegelen vlag.svg
Coat of arms of Tegelen.svg
Map VenloNL GTegelen.PNG
Country Netherlands
Province Limburg
Municipality Venlo
Area
  Total1,040 ha (2,570 acres)
Population
 (2006)
c.20.190
Major roads A73

Tegelen (Limburgish : Tegele) is a village in the municipality of Venlo, situated in the Netherlands. It was an independent municipality until 2001, when it was merged into the municipality of Venlo.

Contents

Tiglian

The name of the glacial stage of Tiglian (part of the Pleistocene) is derived from Tegelen because of the many fossils found there from this era in the local clay.

History

View of Tegelen Tegelen1.JPG
View of Tegelen

During excavations in Tegelen Roman pottery and tile ovens were found. The Sint-Martinus church is mentioned in diocesan and monasterial archives dating back to the year 800. Because of its strategic location, various castles and reinforced[ clarification needed ] farms were soon established. The most important of these were the Castle of Holtmühle  [ nl ] and the De Munt (Tegelen)  [ nl ]. During the Middle Ages, there were several battles in and around Tegelen, because of its proximity to the walled city of Venlo. Over time, a barracks was established in Venlo, and a fortification in neighbouring Blerick. As a result, from the 16th century until the 18th century Tegelen was regularly visited by plundering armies.

Part of Jülich

Coat of arms of the German municipality of Julich DEU Juelich COA.svg
Coat of arms of the German municipality of Jülich

For centuries Tegelen was part of the Duchy of Jülich, while neighbouring Venlo belonged to the Duchy of Guelders. So literally, according to the people of Tegelen Venlo was "abroad" and vice versa. This explains the differences between the local dialects of the neighbouring towns and the rivalry between these parts of the city that persists to this day. The black, uncrowned lion on a golden ground, in the coat of arms and the flag of Tegelen can be found in the coat of arms of the Duchy of Jülich.

For Jülich it was very important to have access to the Meuse river. Tegelen, with its harbour at Steyl, was the most northern one, the other one being Urmond near Sittard. In Napoleonic times, the former duchy of Jülich became part of the Roer department. Tegelen, Sittard and Urmond were ceded to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, resulting in the Netherlands finally obtaining complete control of the river from Maastricht northward.

Industrial activities

Flag of (the former municipality of) Tegelen Tegelen vlag.svg
Flag of (the former municipality of) Tegelen

Early in the 19th century Tegelen developed into a regional centre of industry. At first, tile and pottery factories were established, and later that century, metallurgy and tobacco factories. After 1900 agriculture was added to the mix. Pottery and related industries were very successful in Tegelen from 1750 until World War II.

Economic and social life before that war was dominated by a small number of factory-owning families that would scratch each other's backs. One infamous episode illustrating the way they treated their work force and how they controlled their lives occurred during World War I. The producers of clay products claimed that the embargo on Germany brought them to the brink of bankruptcy, and the only way they could survive was to drastically reduce wages. The work force went on strike but soon the strike fund was depleted. The local clergy helped negotiate a settlement allowing labourers to return to work for a salary that barely exceeded subsistence levels. It later transpired that there had never been any risk of any of the producers going bankrupt, and that this drastic reduction in labour cost had allowed them to make exorbitant profits. This is still evident from the gigantic villas in which these families lived and of which a number are still standing.

After the war, the number of factories in Tegelen steadily decreased. All smelters, including Globe, known throughout the Netherlands for providing drainage covers, disappeared. There are still three operating factories producing clay products, all except Keramische Industrie Limburg, are now in foreign ownership. One chimney, previously owned by a stone cutter named Canoy Herfkens, is still standing as a reminder of Tegelen's industrial heyday.

In 2001 Tegelen was merged into the municipality of Venlo.

Culture

The centuries-old expertise in ceramics and pottery is kept alive by courses held in the ceramic center of the tithe barn.

Tegelen has several theater, music and choral organisations. It is internationally famous for its Passion Play held every five years in the years that are divisible by 5, in Openluchttheater De Doolhof. These always attract many visitors. The same open air theater hosts Tegelen's Bluesrock Festival every year.

Characters

Castle of Holtmuhle [nl] in 1988 Exterieur GEDEELTE VOORGEVEL, ZIJGEVEL - Tegelen - 20304485 - RCE.jpg
Castle of Holtmühle  [ nl ] in 1988

Tegelen has had its fair share of colourful characters. By far the most famous of these is "Baron" Joachim Reinhold von Glasenapp  [ nl ], a Prussian aristocrat who inherited the castle of Holtmuhle in the 18th century. He loved the army life so much that he owned a privately financed army corps that fought in the Seven Years' War.

More locally famous, before the Second World War, were the pub owners "Joës en Petatte Nelke", Gustaaf Schreurs and Petronella Muller, who had a song written about them and a statue erected for them in the market square.

En as weej wir nao Tegele gáon,

dèn gáon weej nao Petatte-Nelke.
Dao drinke weej ’n sjöpke beer,
en hebbe weej ouch vuël plezeer!
En Joes, dae haet zô’n lollig vrouwke,
die duit t’r sôkker in, die duit t’r sôkker in.
Al in det beer, al in det beer,

die duit t’r sôkker al in det beer!

Translation:

When we to Tegele return,

We'll go and see Potato Nelke
Where we'll knock back a pint of beer
and have some good old fashioned cheer!
And Joës's lady is a joker,
She puts some sugar in, she puts some sugar in
Our pint of beer, our pint of beer,

She puts some sugar in our beer!

Former mayors

Born in Tegelen

51°20′30″N6°08′10″E / 51.34167°N 6.13611°E / 51.34167; 6.13611

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limburg (Netherlands)</span> Province of the Netherlands

Limburg, also known as Dutch Limburg, is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is bordered by Gelderland to the north and by North Brabant to its west. Its long eastern boundary forms the international border with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. To the west is the international border with the similarly named Belgian province of Limburg, part of which is delineated by the river Meuse. To the South, Limburg is bordered by the Belgian province of Liège. The Vaalserberg is on the extreme southeastern point, marking the tripoint of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gelderland</span> Province of the Netherlands

Gelderland, also known as Guelders in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of 5,136 km2 (1,983 sq mi) of which 176 km2 (68 sq mi) is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by total area. Gelderland shares borders with six other provinces and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seventeen Provinces</span> Union of states in the Netherlands in the 15th and 16th centuries

The Seventeen Provinces were the Imperial states of the Habsburg Netherlands in the 16th century. They roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e., what is now the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and most of the French departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais (Artois). Also within this area were semi-independent fiefdoms, mainly ecclesiastical ones, such as Liège, Cambrai and Stavelot-Malmedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venlo</span> City and municipality in Limburg, Netherlands

Venlo ( ) is a city and municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg. The municipality of Venlo counted 101,578 inhabitants as of January 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mönchengladbach</span> City in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Mönchengladbach is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kleve</span> Place in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Kleve is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century onwards, Cleves was capital of a county and later a duchy. Today, Cleves is the capital of the district of Kleve in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The city is home to one of the campuses of the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sittard</span> City in Limburg, Netherlands

Sittard is a city in the Netherlands, situated in the southernmost province of Limburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jülich</span> Place in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. As a border region between the competing powers in the Lower Rhine and Meuse areas, the town and the Duchy of Jülich played a historic role from the Middle Ages up to the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchy of Jülich</span> State of the Holy Roman Empire (c. 1003–1794)

The Duchy of Jülich comprised a state within the Holy Roman Empire from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The duchy lay west of the Rhine river and was bordered by the Electorate of Cologne to the east and the Duchy of Limburg to the west. It had territories on both sides of the river Rur, around its capital Jülich – the former Roman Iuliacum – in the lower Rhineland. The duchy amalgamated with the County of Berg beyond the Rhine in 1423, and from then on also became known as Jülich-Berg. Later it became part of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchy of Cleves</span> State of the Holy Roman Empire

The Duchy of Cleves was a State of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval Hettergau. It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the towns of Wesel, Kalkar, Xanten, Emmerich, Rees and Duisburg bordering the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the east and the Duchy of Brabant in the west. Its history is closely related to that of its southern neighbours: the Duchies of Jülich and Berg, as well as Guelders and the Westphalian county of Mark. The Duchy was archaically known as Cleveland in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goch</span> Town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Goch is a town in the district of Kleve, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated close to the border with the Siebengewald in Netherlands, approx. 12 km (7 mi) south of Kleve, and 27 km (17 mi) southeast of Nijmegen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erkelenz</span> Town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Erkelenz is a town in the Rhineland in western Germany that lies 15 kilometres southwest of Mönchengladbach on the northern edge of the Cologne Lowland, halfway between the Lower Rhine region and the Lower Meuse. It is a medium-sized town and the largest in the district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geldern</span> Town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Geldern is a city in the federal German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is part of the district of Kleve, which is part of the Düsseldorf administrative region. The Dutch province of Gelderland is named after this city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guelders Wars</span> Series of conflicts in the Low Countries

The Guelders Wars were a series of conflicts in the Low Countries between the Duke of Burgundy, who controlled Holland, Flanders, Brabant, and Hainaut on the one side, and Charles, Duke of Guelders, who controlled Guelders, Groningen, and Frisia on the other side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First War of the Guelderian Succession</span>

The First War of the Guelderian Succession was a battle for the throne of the Duchy of Guelders that raged between 1371 and 1379.

Westmalle Abbey, otherwise the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle, is a monastery of the Cistercians of Strict Observance in Westmalle in the Belgian province of Antwerp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Guelders</span>

Upper Guelders or Spanish Guelders was one of the four quarters in the Imperial Duchy of Guelders. In the Dutch Revolt, it was the only quarter that did not secede from the Habsburg monarchy to become part of the Seven United Netherlands, but remained under Spanish rule during the Eighty Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steyl</span> Village in the Netherlands

Steyl is a village in the Tegelen district of the municipality of Venlo, the Netherlands. The village on the river Meuse is mainly known for its monasteries. In 2004, a section of the village including four monasteries was made a conservation area under protection of the Dutch heritage agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed.

The siege of Venlo in 1373 is one of the many sieges which the Dutch city of Venlo has known. This siege was the first in a long line of sieges which the city has known for centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rijksstraatweg</span>

Rijksstraatweg or simply Straatweg was the term for paved roads of interregional significance in the Netherlands in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These roads were built by the national government, and formed the country's first centrally planned highway network. They received route numbers, eventually resulting in a nationwide network of 82 highways. It formed the basis for today's system of nationally controlled roads, the Netherlands' main highway grid.