Sint-Katelijne-Waver railway station

The Arrondissement of Mechelen (Dutch: Arrondissement Mechelen; French: Arrondissement de Malines) is one of the three administrative arrondissements in the Province of Antwerp, Belgium. It is both an administrative and a judicial arrondissement, as the territory for both coincides.

Duffel is a railway station in the town of Duffel, Antwerp, Belgium. The station opened on 16 June 1836 on the Lines 25 and 27. The train services are operated by National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS).

Roosendael Abbey (the abbey of the valley of roses) was a community of Cistercian nuns, founded in the 13th century on the banks of the River Nete in the Duchy of Brabant, at a location now in Sint-Katelijne-Waver. The monastery was established in or before 1227 by the nobleman Gillis Berthout, according to later tradition for his daughters Elizabeth and Oda. An early member of the community who gave it a wider reputation for sanctity was Blessed Ida of Louvain.The monastery was ordered closed in 1795, during the French occupation of Belgium, and the nuns were forced off the premises in January 1797. The main building became a country house in the 19th century.In 1828 the archivist of the National Archives of Belgium was notified that a pile of old parchment was available from a second-hand clothes dealer in Brussels. This transpired to be the remains of the monastery's archives, with over a thousand documents, including papal bulls and ducal charters, the oldest going back to 1235.

The AFAS Stadion is a football stadium in Mechelen, Belgium. It is used for football matches and is the home ground of KV Mechelen. Currently, the ground has a capacity of 16,672. The stadium is called Achter de Kazerne, which means "Behind the Army Barracks". It is called this because the stadium was once located behind an army base. In the past it was called Scarletstadion (2003–2006) after the stadium's sponsor Scarlet. It was the first commercialised stadium name in Belgium. After this, Veolia took over the deal (2006–2009) followed by Argos Oil until May 2015. AFAS Software started with a sponsorship deal and is currently the name-holder of Achter de Kazerne. A major reconstruction of the stadium started in 2015.AZ, a team from Alkmaar, Netherlands, also plays is an AFAS-sponsored stadium. See AFAS Stadion.

Duffel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdɵfəl]) is a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises only the town of Duffel proper. On 1 January 2020, Duffel had a total population of 17,664. The total area is 22.71 km² which gives a population density of 778 inhabitants per km². The town is the home of "duffel fabric", a coarse woollen cloth used to make heavy outerwear and tote bags. The etymology of Duffel is from "dubro" and "locus", from the Gaulish dubrum, dubron – "water". In 1836, the Duffel railway station opened on the Brussels-North to Antwerp railway line.

Sint-Katelijne-Waver (Dutch pronunciation: [sɪnt kaːtəˌlɛi̯nə ˈʋaːvər], old spelling: Kathelijne-Waver; French: Wavre-Sainte-Catherine, French pronunciation: ​[wavʁ sɛ̃t katʁin]) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Waver and Sint-Katelijne-Waver proper. In 2021, Sint-Katelijne-Waver had a total population of 21,197. The total area is 36.12 km2. Roosendael, a ruined relic of a cistercian abbey is situated here and today hosts a youth and touristic centre with pleasant walkways.

Nekkerspoel is a neighbourhood of Mechelen, Belgium, immediately east of the city. The name means pool of one or more Nekkers or water demons. and it is presumed that in earlier centuries locals taking a shortcut through the marshlands, of which the Mechels Broek is a surviving remnant, may have strayed off safer pathways and lost their lives. In 1904, remnants dating from the La Tène era of a settlement of several wooden houses and an 8.4 metre long oaken dugout canoe were found at a depth of 5 metres.This hamlet was already well-populated and built-up at a time that otherwise mainly a few monasteries were seen outside the city's former walls. Meanwhile, it obtained Mechelen's secondary station on Belgium's major Brussels-Mechelen-Antwerp railway, and the Toy Museum (Speelgoedmuseum) with exhibits covering 7,000 m² in the former furniture manufacturer's Nova building. By the end of the third quarter of the 20th century, sand from nearby rivers had been disposed on a part of the Mechels Broek along the river Dijle. Shortly thereafter sandwinning created two large pools while the remainder physically supports the provincial sports and recreation complex De Nekker, which in summer also offers swimming at the artificial beach in a safe-guarded part of the larger of the man-made pools. Though from beside its main building one may start walking along the Mechels Broek, the latter's visitor centre is at the Mechlinian suburb of Muizen and the nature reserve stretches onto the neighbouring municipality of Bonheiden. Located between the actual hamlet and the sports complex, the 18,000 m² multi-functional events hall named Nekkerhal is widely known for e.g. erotica exhibitions (Mega Erotica Beurs) once in a blue moon but each time with broad media coverage, its regular flea markets (Bras Vlooienmarkt), sports promotion days ('Doe-aan-sportbeurs), and other temporary events drawing public with a specific interest such as informatics or specialty cars, or of a particular profession as for the International Furniture Festival trade market. It had originally been built by the municipality for housing Europe's largest cooperative vegetable auction, when this had outgrown its buildings along Mechelen's minor ring road that replaced the city walls. By the time it was finished however, the auction had moved to the neighbouring municipality of Sint-Katelijne-Waver. Mechelen leaves the property in the care of the Nekkerhal non-profit organization.

The Mechelen Toy Museum (Dutch: Speelgoedmuseum Mechelen) is a Toy Museum\ situated in the Nekkerspoel hamlet in Mechelen, Belgium, is a museum containing a unique collection of past and contemporary toys on a total surface of 7,000 m2. The museum was founded in April 1982, and since 1998 it is a recognized museum. The permanent collection is subdivided in the following categories: Circus and kermesse Construction toys Creative and educational toys Stuffed toys Mechanical and iron toys Optical and sound-making toys Puppets Puzzles and board games Soldiers Toys around the world Traditional child games and Pieter Bruegel Trains Transport in miniatureApart from that there are also changing exhibitions. The museum also has an educational service with school programmes.

The Kazerne Dossin Holocaust memorial is the only part of the Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights established within the former Mechelen transit camp of World War II, from which, in German-occupied Belgium, arrested Jews and Romani were sent to concentration camps. The aforementioned museum and documentation centre are housed in a new purpose-built complex across the public square.

The Mechelen transit camp, officially SS-Sammellager Mecheln (lit. 'SS Assembly Camp Mechelen') in German, also known as the Dossin barracks, was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium. It served as a point to gather Belgian Jews and Romani ahead of their deportation to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. The camp was established in March 1942 and was the only transit camp in Belgium. It was managed by the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo-SD), a branch of the Reich Security Main Office, and was used to hold Jews and Romani ahead of their deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as other camps including Heydebreck-Cosel. Between 4 August 1942 and 31 July 1944, 28 trains left from near the camp and deported over 25,800 people. Only 1,240 survived the war.The camp was abandoned at the Liberation of Belgium in September 1944 and subsequently was repurposed for housing. A museum was established in 1996 and today part of the former barracks and a new building opposite form part of the Kazerne Dossin – Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights, which includes a Holocaust memorial and museum.

Mechelen-Nekkerspoel railway station (Dutch: Station Mechelen-Nekkerspoel, French: Gare de Malines-Nekkerspoel) is a railway station in Mechelen, Antwerp, Belgium. The station opened on 3 December 1903 on railway lines 25, 27 and 27B. The train services are operated by the National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS/SNCB).

The Oscar Vankesbeesckstadion is a football stadium, located in Mechelen, Belgium, and is host to K.R.C. Mechelen. With a capacity of 6,123.The stadium, located Oscar Vankesbeeckstraat, is named after Oscar Van Kesbeeck, a Flemish politician, who was chairman of the Belgian Football Association between 1937 and 1943, and a former chairman and player of Racing Mechelen. It is located about 1.5 kilometers far from the Veolia Stadium of rivals KV Mechelen.