Duchy of Limburg (1839–1867)

Limbourg (French pronunciation: [lɛ̃buʁ] ; German and Dutch: Limburg; Walloon: Limbôr) or Limbourg-sur-Vesdre is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2008, Limbourg had a total population of 5,680. The total area is 24.63 km² which gives a population density of 231 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following districts: Bilstain, Goé, and Limbourg. The lower part of the town, along the Vesdre, is called Dolhain.

The Duchy of Limburg or Limbourg was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire. Much of the area of the duchy is today located within Liège Province of Belgium, with a small portion in the municipality of Voeren, an exclave of the neighbouring Limburg Province. Its chief town was Limbourg-sur-Vesdre, in today's Liège Province. The Duchy evolved from a county which was first assembled under the lordship of a junior member of the House of Ardenne–Luxembourg, Frederick. He and his successors built and apparently named the fortified town which the county, and later the Duchy, were named after. Despite being a younger son, Frederick had a successful career and also became Duke of Lower Lotharingia in 1046. Lordship of this county was not originally automatically linked with possession of a ducal title (Herzog in German, Hertog in Dutch), and the same title also eventually contested by counts of Brabant, leading to the invention of two new Ducal titles: Brabant and Limbourg. The extinction of the line of Frederick's grandson Henry in 1283 sparked the War of the Limburg Succession, whereafter Limburg was ruled by the Dukes of Brabant in personal union, eventually being grouped together with the Brabantian "Overmaas" territories bordering it (including Dalhem, Valkenburg, and 's-Hertogenrade), to be one of the Seventeen Provinces of the Burgundian Netherlands. Unlike other parts of this province, the lands of the duchy stayed intact within the Southern Netherlands, under Habsburg control, after the divisions caused by the Eighty Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession. However finally, after the failed Brabant Revolution in 1789, the duchy's history was terminated with the occupation by French Revolutionary troops in 1793. The easternmost lands were reunited within modern Belgium only after World War I. The duchy was multilingual, being the place where Dutch, French, and German dialects border upon each other and coexist at their geographical extremes, both now and in medieval times. Its northern and eastern borders are the approximate boundaries of the modern state of Belgium with the Netherlands and Germany, at their "tripoint". The eastern part, which includes Eupen, is the administrative capital and northernmost part of the modern German-speaking Community of Belgium. The Duchy also included the main part of the Pays de Herve, famous for its pungent-smelling soft cheese known as Limburger or Herve.

Dolhain is the industrial centre of the city of Limbourg, Wallonia, in the Belgian province of Liège. It occupies the site of the lower town of the ancient city of Limbourg, which was destroyed by Louis XIV in 1675. On a rocky eminence above Dolhain are still to be seen the fine ruins of the old castle of Limbourg, the cradle of the ancient family of that name from which sprang the Luxemburg family and several emperors of Germany. The Gothic church of St George of the 13th century has been restored. At a short distance from Dolhain is the famous dam of the Gileppe, the vast reservoir constructed to supply Verviers with water free from lime for its cloth manufactures. The aqueduct from Gileppe to Verviers is about 80 km in length.

The Stade Lambert Fourir is a football stadium of the Royal Dolhain FC in Limbourg, Belgium. The club has three football fields. The facilities were restored some years ago. The main building or main grandstand consists of several facilities. There are four locker rooms for players and a locker room for the referee, also including sanitary facilities such as toilets and a small cafeteria is available. The bar association has been recently restored. It has room for several hundred visitors. It is also possible to rent the bar for birthday parties or similar events or other celebrations. More information can be requested from the Board of the Association. In 1947 the football club from coming Dolhain named the stadium "Stade Lambert Fourir" to be that referred to this day. The stadium holds 3,000 spectators.

Limburg (Dutch: Limburg, pronounced [ˈlɪmbʏr(ə)x] ; Limburgish: Limburg [ˈlɪm˦ˌbʏʀ˦(ə)x] or Wes-Limburg [wæsˈlɪm˦ˌbʏʀ˦(ə)x]; French: Limbourg, pronounced [lɛ̃buʁ] ) is a province in Belgium. It is the easternmost of the five Dutch-speaking provinces that together form the Region of Flanders, one of the three main political and cultural sub-divisions of modern-day Belgium. Limburg is located west of the Meuse (Dutch: Maas), which separates it from the similarly-named Dutch province of Limburg. To the south it shares a border with the French-speaking province of Liège, with which it also has historical ties. To the north and west are the old territories of the Duchy of Brabant. Today these are the Flemish provinces of Flemish Brabant and Antwerp to the west, and the Dutch province of North Brabant to the north. The province of Limburg has an area of 2,427 km2 (937 sq mi) which comprises three arrondissements (arrondissementen in Dutch) containing 44 municipalities. Among these municipalities are the current capital Hasselt, Sint-Truiden, Genk, and Tongeren, which is the only Roman city in the province, and regarded as the oldest city of Belgium. As of January 2019, Limburg has a population of 874,048.The municipality of Voeren is geographically detached from Limburg and the rest of Flanders, with the Netherlands to the north and the Walloon province of Liège to the south. This municipality was established by the municipal reform of 1977 and on 1 January 2008 with its six villages had a total population of 4,207. Its total area is 50.63 km2 (19.55 sq mi).

Baelen (French pronunciation: [balɛn]; Walloon: Bailou) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, Baelen had a total population of 4,060. The total area is 85.73 km² which gives a population density of 47.36 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following districts: Baelen and Membach.

The Gileppe is a river in Belgium with a length of about 20 kilometres (12 mi). It is a left tributary of the Vesdre. Its source is in the High Fens of eastern Belgium. The Gileppe flows through an artificial lake (Lac de la Gileppe), built in 1867–78 and enlarged to 1.3 square kilometres (0.50 sq mi) in 1968–71, created by the Gileppe Dam. The Gileppe flows into the Vesdre between Eupen and Limbourg.

Welkenraedt (French pronunciation: [wɛlkənʁat]; Ripuarian: Wälekete; Walloon: Welkenrote) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2018, Welkenraedt had a total population of 9,920. The total area is 24.47 km² which gives a population density of 405 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following districts: Henri-Chapelle and Welkenraedt.

The Gileppe Dam (French Barrage de la Gileppe) is an arch-gravity dam on the Gileppe river in Jalhay, Liège province, Wallonia, Belgium. It was built in the 1870s to supply water for the wool industry in nearby Verviers. The monumental structure with its unusually thick profile played an important role in establishing an international standard for masonry gravity dams as a technology for major water supply systems. It was considered one of the strongest dams in Europe at the time, and it was the first dam built in modern Belgium. In the first decade of the 21st century, it was noted as supplying most of the drinking water for Verviers, as well as industrial water, and as producing hydroelectricity.

Welkenraedt is a railway station in the town of Welkenraedt, Liège, Belgium. The station opened on 24 October 1843 and is located on the 37, 39 and 49. The train services are operated by National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS).

Jalhay (French pronunciation: [ʒalɛ]; Walloon: Djalhé) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 Jalhay had a total population of 7,953. The total area is 107.75 km² which gives a population density of 74 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following districts: Jalhay and Sart. The highest point of the municipality is the Baraque Michel in the High Fens, at 674 metres (2,211 ft).