Heers Castle

The Hesbaye (French, French pronunciation: [ɛsbɛ]), or Haspengouw (Dutch and Limburgish, Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦɑspə(ŋ)ˌɣʌu]), is a traditional cultural and geophysical region in eastern Belgium. It is a loamy plateau region which forms a watershed between the Meuse and Scheldt drainage basins. It has been one of the main agricultural regions in what is now Belgium since before Roman times, and specifically named in records since the Middle Ages, when it was an important Frankish pagus or gau, called Hasbania in medieval Latin.

Heers (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦeːrs] , Limburgish: Hiër [ˈɦiəʀ]) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg.

Gotem is a small town in the Limburg province of Belgium and is part of the municipality of Borgloon.

Borgloon (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɔr(ə)xˌloːn] ; French: Looz, French pronunciation: [lo]; Limburgish: Loeën) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. On January 1, 2006, Borgloon had a total population of 10,697. The total area is 51.12 km2 (19.74 sq mi) which gives a population density of 209 inhabitants per km2 (514/sq mi). Borgloon gave its name to the former county of Loon and was its capital until 1200. The municipality includes the following 13 sub-municipalities: Bommershoven, Borgloon proper, Broekom, Gors-Opleeuw, Gotem, Groot-Loon, Hendrieken, Hoepertingen, Jesseren, Kerniel, Kuttekoven, Rijkel, and Voort.

Heks Castle (Dutch: Kasteel van Heks) is a château in the village of Heks in the municipality of Heers, province of Limburg, Belgium.

The N3 road in Belgium is a national road connecting the capital city Brussels to Aachen in Germany via Leuven, Tienen, Sint-Truiden and Liège. Its course is quite similar to that of European route E40 between Brussels and Aachen, which it intersects 3 times. The road runs through the 3 Belgian regions (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia) and the 3 communities (Dutch-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking). Starting at the small Brussels ring road crossroad Arts-Loi in the City of Brussels, the road is first named Rue de la Loi (direction Brussels centrum) or Rue Belliard (direction Aachen), then enters the Belliard tunnel under the Cinquantenaire park before it becomes the Avenue de Tervueren/Tervurenlaan past the Tervuren gate in Etterbeek. The Avenue de Tervueren then crosses the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre from the Montgomery Place, passes along the Woluwe and Parmentier parks before it joins the Chaussée de Tervueren/Tervuursesteenweg in Auderghem. Past this intersection, the N3 road comes back to Woluwe-Saint-Pierre where it crosses the Brussels Ring after which it leaves the region of Brussels for Flanders in Tervuren, Flemish Brabant. Before it arrives to Leuven where it joins the N2 road on the Leuven Ring, the road crosses highways E40 in Bertem and E314 in Heverlee, a borough of Leuven. Between Leuven and Tienen the N3 road runs parallel to the E40 and the railroad Leuven-Tienen. Arriving in Sint-Truiden, the road enters the province of Limburg and leaves it for the Walloon province of Liège at Oreye. It intersects the E40 highway again at Loncin and then runs through the city centre of Liège and crosses the river Meuse there. Going north-east the road intersects the E40 for the 3rd time in Soumagne. The N3 finally crosses 2 municipalities of the German-speaking community (Lontzen and Kelmis). From Kelmis the German city of Aachen can be joined via the German road B264. The N3 crosses or borders 31 municipalities in the country. 4 of them are in the Brussels Capital Region, 12 in Flemish Brabant, 2 in Limburg and 14 in Liège. Full municipality list below, with main municipalities in bold.

Rullingen Castle (Dutch: Kasteel van Rullingen) is a castle in Kuttekoven in the municipality of Borgloon, province of Limburg, Belgium. Its situation in the valley of the Herk is very scenic. The first recorded lord of Rullingen was Eggebert van Ruelingen, a vassal of Arnold II, Count of Loon (d 1138 or -39). The medieval castle was reconstructed, probably in the 1630s, as a typical moated castle of the Meuse valley, although the moat has been filled up in more recent times. A serious fire in 1920 destroyed part of the building, and reconstruction works lasted from 1921 to 1935. The castle was acquired by the government of the province of Belgian Limburg. It is now used as a hotel.

Yerne is a river of Belgium. It flows for 15.5 kilometres (9.6 mi) through the province of Liège in the northern-central part of the country.

The County of Loon (Dutch: Graafschap Loon [ˈɣraːfsxɑp ˈloːn], Limburgish: Graafsjap Loeën [ˈɣʀaːfʃɑp ˈluən], French: Comté de Looz) was a county in the Holy Roman Empire, which corresponded approximately with the modern Belgian province of Limburg. It was named after the original seat of its count, Loon, which is today called Borgloon. During the middle ages the counts moved their court to a more central position in Kuringen, which today forms part of Hasselt, capital of the province. From its beginnings, Loon was associated with the nearby Prince-bishop of Liège, and by 1190 the count had come under the bishop's overlordship. In the fourteenth century the male line ended for a second time, at which point the prince-bishops themselves took over the county directly. Loon approximately represented the Dutch-speaking (archaic French: thiois) part of the princedom. All of the Dutch-speaking towns in the Prince-Bishopric, with the status of being so-called "Good Cities" (French: bonnes villes), were in Loon, and are in Belgian Limburg today. These were Beringen, Bilzen, Borgloon, Bree, Hamont, Hasselt, Herk-de-Stad, Maaseik, Peer and Stokkem. Like other areas which eventually came under the power of the Prince Bishop of Liège, Loon never formally became part of the unified lordship of the "Low Countries" which united almost all of the Benelux in the late Middle Ages, and continued to unite almost all of today's Belgium under the ancien regime. Loon and other Liège lordships only joined their neighbours when they all became part of France during the French Revolution. After the Battle of Waterloo, they remained connected in the new United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1839, the old territory of Loon became the approximate basis of a new province, Limburg, within the new Kingdom of Belgium.

Oreye (French pronunciation: [ɔʁɛj]; Dutch: Oerle, Dutch pronunciation: [ˈuːrlə] ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2018, Oreye had a total population of 3,912. The total area is 19.64 km² which gives a population density of 199 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following districts: Bergilers, Grandville, Lens-sur-Geer, Oreye, and Otrange.

Zepperen is a village and a former municipality. It is part of the municipality of Sint-Truiden in the province of Limburg in Belgium. This village developed in the northern, humid part of Haspengouw close to the stream Melsterbeek. This rivulet starts about 15 kilometers to the south near the border between Flanders and Wallonia and merges with the river Gete near Geetbets. Traces of the prehistoric and Roman occupation were found alongside this river and alongside the Eigenbeek in the northern part of Zepperen. The name of the village, in his Latin form ‘Septimburias’ or seven cabins, was first mentioned in the late 8th century. In the life of Saint Trudo, the founder of the nearby city of Sint-Truiden, is noted how the holy boy held a regularly nocturnal pilgrimage to Saint-Genevieve of Paris, especially worshipped in Zepperen. The young Trudo met in Zepperen around 650 with the interim-bishop Remaclus to ask him for his advice concerning his vocation. In that period there was already a basilica in Zepperen, dedicated to Saint-Genevieve. Till the end of the 18th century the village was an enclave owned by the chapter of Saint-Servaas of Maastricht amidst the land of the principality of Liège. The popular pilgrimage to the so-called ‘Three holy sisters” stimulated this chapter to build a beautiful church in Zepperen. Only the defensive western tower of the Roman church from the 12th century still exists. During the whole of the 15th century a nave with transept was reconstructed towards this tower in the then modern late gothic style. Zepperen has an elongated territory with the village square in the southwest corner. The communities of Roosbeek, Gippershoven, Tereyken and d’Eygen are situated more to the east and north. Ekhout or Dekken, in the middle of this territory, was mentioned in a document of 1244. This pasture between Eigenbeek and Bergbeek was used to graze the cattle of the villagers and to grow Canadian poplars by the village administration. In the late 19th century Dekken was transformed into farmland en since the 1950s the government allocated this terrain to build houses. The proximity of the commercial and services center of Sint-Truiden makes Zepperen a living community for commuters. Zepperen merged with Sint-Truiden in 1977. The filling of the gaps between the existing houses gave the village its monotone face of ribbon building. The road from Sint-Truiden-Brustem to Wellen-Borgloon through the elevated Honsberg in the south of Zepperen is probably of mediaeval or Roman age. Since the 19th century Zepperen was enclosed in the northeastern part of Greater Sint-Truiden between the new highways to Tongeren (1817) and Hasselt (1839), and the railways to Hasselt (1847) and Tongeren (1879). New local roads were built around 1900 (the connection between the village square and the nearby train station of Ordingen) and in 1936 (the road from the center to the railway station of Kortenbos, one of the first roads in this region constructed in concrete). More recently the village is opened up in the north by the highway Sint-Truiden-Kortenbos and the connection highway Melveren-Ordingen in the west. The Saint-Genevieve church is known for its wallpaintings in late gothic style (1509) and the altarpiece wings in the same style. Nearby the church is a churchyard gate (1765), the house of the curate (1907), the presbytery (1779), the house of the witchdoctor ’t Mesterke (1904) and the Ouwerx farmhouse (partly 1665). The famous Sint-Aloysius institute originated in the buildings of the former supreme convent of the Begards in the diocese of Liège, founded on the banks of the Melsterbeek in Zepperen in 1425. In the interval of the 19th and early 20th century these buildings were transformed in a castle for the noblemen of the families de Pitteurs, d’Astier and Loyaerts. During the first world war a German Leib-Hussar was killed on 9 August 1914 and on the 17th a squadron of Belgian Guides was decimated by German Leib-Grenadiers. In the second World war there were two crashes in Zepperen: on the 30 July 1942 a German Junker 88-A4 was destroyed on landing, the three occupants died. On 27 April 1944 a Canadian Halifax MZ522 with the 431st crashed nearby the Sint-Aloysius institute. All the airmen got out safe by parachute. Two members of the resistance were shot dead near a crossroad “De Dikke Linde” by collaborationists of the German occupation force. The village of Zepperen, known as a fruit growing area, was the starting place of the firm HMZ (Hayen Mommen Zepperen), which build windturbines from 1978 on.

Wellen (Dutch pronunciation: ['ʋɛlə(n)] ; Limburgish: Wille) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. On 1 January 2018, Wellen had a total population of 7,402. The total area is 26.72 km² with a population density of 266 inhabitants per km2. The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Wellen, Berlingen, Herten and Ulbeek. Other population centres and hamlets include: Bos, Beurs, Kukkelberg, Langenakker, Oetersloven, Overbroek, Russelt, and Vrolingen.