Welkenraedt railway station

Herbesthal (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛʁbəsˌtaːl]) is a village in the municipality of Lontzen, East Belgium.

Herbesthal railway station was the Prussian/German frontier station on the main railway from Germany into Belgium between 1843 and 1920. It opened to rail traffic on 15 October 1843, and was thereby the oldest railway station frontier crossing in the world. It lost its border status on 10 January 1920, however, as a result of changes mandated in the Treaty of Versailles, which left Herbesthal more than 10 km (6.2 mi) inside Belgium.

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.

Lontzen (German pronunciation: [ˈlɔntsn̩]) is a municipality located in East Belgium. On January 1, 2018 Lontzen had a total population of 5,695. The total area is 28.73 km² which gives a population density of 198 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Lontzen proper, Herbesthal, and Walhorn. In the 19th century, a Low Franconian dialect was widely spoken in Lontzen.

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.

Kelmis (German pronunciation: [ˈkɛlmɪs]; French: La Calamine, French pronunciation: ​[la kalamin]) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège, named for the historical deposits of calamine (zinc ore) nearby. As of 2011, the population was 10,881; the area is 18.1 square kilometres (7.0 sq mi) and the population density is 601.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,557/sq mi).The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Kelmis proper, Hergenrath, and Neu-Moresnet. The territory around the Vieille Montagne zinc mine in Kelmis was Neutral Moresnet, a neutral condominium of the Netherlands and Prussia (later Belgium and Germany) from 1816 to 1919, with the Mayor of Kelmis nominated by two commissioners from the neighbouring countries. Although there were attempts by locals at making it evolve into a fully independent microstate, all of them were thwarted and it remained under double-sovereignty and neutrality until its eventual annexation by Belgium after the First World War. There is a war memorial to German soldiers from Kelmis who were killed during the Franco-Prussian War, located in the Aachener Strasse, and one to inhabitants of Kelmis who were killed in the First and Second World Wars, located in the Kirchplatz (French: Place de l'Église).A small museum in Kelmis, the Museum Vieille Montagne, includes exhibits on Neutral Moresnet. Of the 60 border markers for the territory, more than 50 are still standing.In the nineteenth century a Low Dietsch dialect was spoken in Kelmis. Today Kelmis is German-speaking. It has facilities for French speakers and is one of the nine municipalities of the German‑speaking Community of Belgium.

Henri-Chapelle (Walloon: Hinri-Tchapele, Dutch: Hendrik-Kapelle, German: Heinrichskapelle, Limburgish: Kapäl) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Welkenraedt, located in the province of Liège, Belgium. It is located 17 kilometers south-west of the spa and border city of Aachen. Just 300 metres (1,000 ft) west of the town, near the water tower, is the highest point in the Herve plateau, at 354 metres (1,161 ft) above sea level. Henri-Chapelle was its own municipality until January 1, 1977 when it was merged with Welkenraedt as part of the fusion of the Belgian municipalities. Its postal code is 4841.

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.

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 (Dutch: Hertogdom Limburg) created in 1839 from parts of the Dutch Province of Limburg as a result of the Treaty of London. Its territory was the territory of the modern day province of Limburg with the exceptions of the cities of Maastricht and Venlo. The Duchy of Limburg was also a member state of the German Confederation.

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.